Picture This!
by rugphan
Summary: A Danny Phantom/Rugrats/Simpsons Crossover. It's Valentine's Day and 5 year old Danny is down in the dumps, and he has a huge fight with Sam. And a baby named Bart Simpson is the cause of all of it! Can Tommy and the babies save the day? Told in Sam's POV. The 2nd story in my Danny, Tommy, and Friends story series.


Picture This!

(Part of the Danny, Tommy, and Friends Story Series)

by: Rugphan

Warning: It's Valentines Day everybody! Now, run! Run for your lives before you get cooties! :)

Forward

"_**U**_m, hi everybody! Oh, wait, I forgot to turn the microphone on."

Sam pushed the switch up and pulled the microphone down toward her on its holder, the mic bonking against her head in the process. Sam sucked in some air. She didn't want the whole audience outside to see her wail in pain.

'How embarrassing!' Sam thought. 'I haven't even been out here for five seconds, and I've already messed up twice! Maybe I'm camera nervous.'

She glanced up at the camera's lens, watching her every move, where possibly millions would be watching within the years (or reading in our case)….

Sam gulped. 'Yep, I'm definitely camera nervous!' She glared at the right side of the stage. "Why couldn't you be the one to do this?" she whispered, angrily.

Danny sighed behind the curtain. "Because," he explained, "this is our first documentary. All of us babies were way too nervous to do it the first time, so we all agreed to draw straws. You got the shortest one, so you're first!"

"I tried to tell you before you pushed me onto the stage." Sam said, covering the microphone with her left hand, "Angelica switched the straws before you turned around!"

"Oh." Danny answered. "Well… I'll make her do the next one. It's a little late now. Just tell your story!"

"But, Danny-,"

But Danny had already put his music earphones on, and Sam knew he couldn't hear a word she was saying. 'So much for his help.' she thought.

Sam took her hand off the microphone. "_Angelica, little witch."_ she mumbled. 'Holy cow! Did anyone hear that in the video?' She grinned into the camera innocently.

"Um, hi everybody." Sam said nervously into the mic. "My name's Sam Manson, and I'm telling our very first documentary story, or which my friends and I like to call, 'Tales from the Crib'." She took a deep breath. So far, so good.

"Anyway," Sam continued, "this whole thing is for Tommy's special box, so he can look at this ten years from now and see what awesome adventures we had when we were just little kids. All of these stories we will tell in these books are special to us in our own way. And," she added, "there will be a few laughs and special new friends in these stories too. So…. yeah. I guess that's pretty much it."

A pause.

Sam took a quick glance at her watch. It was 3:13. Sam had two more minutes before she could tell her story. What was she supposed to do until then?

Sam looked to her right once again. Danny was still listening to his Reptar CD. He was nodding his head, his eyes closed. Danny was totally oblivious as to what was going on at the moment.

Sam sighed. "I guess I'll start telling the story now." she mumbled into the mic. Sam sat in the chair that was placed behind her and lowered the microphone toward her face. "Okay. Testing. Testing. One, two, three!"

She was good to go. The microphone had caught Sam's words nice and clearly. "Okay." she repeated. "Now, here's the first official story for 'Tales From the Crib'! I hope you enjoy this Tommy!"

Chapter One: The Boy on the Skateboard

_**I**_t was just an ordinary day for the seven of us. Other than the fact that I had to splash water on Danny's face that morning so he would get out of his sleeping bag, which was a total laugh by the way, the babies, Danny, Tucker, and I got into Mrs. Pickles van, and she took us to the park for the day.

The car ride was fun. Tucker, who had just met the babies a few weeks before, seemed to be having a great time, especially with Chuckie. Chuckie (or Chuck, as Danny liked to call him) is one of Tommy's best friends. The coolest thing about Tommy and Chuckie is that they're _total_ opposites.

Chuckie has always been the most sensitive kid of the group. That's one of the reasons I try to keep him away from Angelica, Tommy's older cousin. She's always picking on us. But Chuckie seems to be the main target for her. I can see why, though. Chuckie isn't the bravest kid in the world. But that doesn't mean Angelica should just pick on him. Or the rest of us for that matter.

Chuckie has gotten a little bit braver over these past few months. First it was little things like using the regular potties, and now he's thinking about going down the big slide in the park! I have to tell you, that's a big improvement for him.

Tommy on the other hand, is way different than Chuckie. He's more of an out going, adventurous kind of guy. One time he took us to the moon in a cardboard box and fought aliens. Another time, we were pirates sailing across the 'Specific Ocean', fighting other pirates, and searching for buried treasure. It soon ended up as a new game called 'Finding our Lost Toys in Tommy's Sandbox.'

Tommy is able to stand up to Angelica, even if the consequences are more than what he imagines. One time when we were at the park, Angelica was kicking sand in our faces. When Tommy told her to stop it, she attached him to the monkey bars with plastic toy handcuffs. And get this, she 'accidentally' lost the key! So we had to spend the whole day looking for this tiny little silver key, when we could've been playing. Danny eventually ended up finding it in the bottom of one of the parks' trashcans. He had to go home and take _three_ baths just to get the grime and dirt off of him! I was just glad Angelica couldn't make it to the sleepover the night before, or else who knows what cruel tricks she would've had up her sleeves that day! I probably wouldn't have been able to sleep that night!

Anyway, like I said before, Tommy Pickles and Chuckie Finster are completely different from each other.

While the babies were chatting and having a good time, I looked at the view outside of the car. I could tell we were getting close to the park because of all of the trees we were passing. After a few minutes of looking out the window, I felt a tug on my sweater sleeve. I turned to glance at one of my new playmates, Lil Deville.

"Hey Sam," Lil said quietly, "I thinks something's wrong with Danny."

"Yeah," Lil's identical twin brother, Phil added, "he doesn't look very happy."

I quickly glanced back to where my best friend was sitting. Danny had an annoyed look on his face. I noticed he looked more annoyed than usual. Actually, Danny seemed that he was more gloomy than annoyed.

I turned back to Phil and Lil, smiled, and shrugged. "Don't worry about it, you guys." I said calmly. "I've known Danny for years. I'm sure whatever is bugging him, he'll get over it soon enough."

The twins smiled at me. "Okay!" They nodded in unison.

I grinned back at them and started looking out the window again. I suddenly frowned. I actually wasn't _sure_ if Danny was going to get over whatever his problem was. He seemed too depressed. I just wished that whatever Danny was upset about, that someone or _something_ would cheer him up.

_**T**_ommy was the first one to leap out of the van when we got to the park. Once everyone was out of car, he inhaled and sighed deeply. "Smell that fresh air, you guys!" he exclaimed. "Isn't it great?"

Tommy was right. The park was _definitely_ great, especially because it was winter. Other than the fact that it was a bit chilly outside, it was a perfect day to go to the park and play some of our favorite games.

Chuckie nodded at his best friend. "You're right, Tommy! It _is_ pretty neat out here!"

"Yeah." Danny mumbled, as he stepped out of the van. "Neat."

Tucker glanced at him. "Dude, are you okay?" he asked. "You seem a little down. More down than you usually are in the mornings."

My eyes suddenly widened. "Was it because of how I woke you up this morning, Danny?" I quickly started to apologize. "I'm so sorry, if it was! I was only trying to-,"

But Danny cut me off. "Don't worry, Sam. I'm not mad because of you. It's just that, Valentines Day is in two days, and I've got a lot of things on my mind right now."

I nodded like I understood. But to tell you the truth, I really didn't understand what was bugging Danny at the moment. I mean, he had a lot of things on his mind just before Valentines Day started? Danny loves Valentines Day! He loves everything about it, except for the commercialism of it. Danny always got excited whenever Valentines Day was getting near. He's probably the only person I know who likes the holiday _this_ much. So, why was he so glum?

I glanced at Phil and Lil to see if I could tell what was going on in their minds. But when I looked into their eyes, all I could see was, well….nothing. I then glanced at Tommy and Chuckie. Chuckie was smiling, but Tommy had a puzzled expression on his face.

"What's Valemtimes Day?" he asked.

'Of course!' I thought. 'I can't believe I hadn't thought about it before!' This was Tommy's, Phil's, and Lil's very _first_ Valentines Day! Chuckie was the only baby who had celebrated the holiday before, considering the fact that he's a year older than the other three. He seemed to like Valentines Day also, he was grinning so big.

I smiled at Tommy. "Danny will tell you all about it, won't you Danny?" I walked up to him and put my arm around his shoulder. I just knew this would get Danny to smile again.

I was really surprised when Danny removed my arm from over my shoulder and said, "No, thanks. I just don't really feel like talking about it right now." We watched as Danny headed to the monkey bars, with his head hanging down.

"Is Danny gonna be okay?" Tommy asked to no one in particular. "I don't wants him to be sad. Is that what Valemtimes Day is about?"

It was weird all right. I mean, Danny _not_ wanting to talk about Valentines Day? Danny _not_ wanting to share something with the babies? Him being so depressed all of a sudden? Why was he so sad anyway?

I had to do something.

I nodded. "Of course he's going to be okay, Tommy." But when I glanced back at Danny again, he seemed like he was more upset than he was just a few seconds ago. I faced the babies once again. "Why don't you guys go and do something fun. I have to talk to Danny."

"Well, okay then." Phil said, as he and the others started to walk off.

"Good luck!" Lil said, glancing back at Danny.

Once the babies were out of sight, I started walking toward the monkey bars. Danny was staring at a piece of grass that he was fiddling around with in his hands, and humming some song that I never even heard of to himself.

"Danny," I asked, once I approached him, "are you okay?"

Silence.

"Danny?"

More silence.

"You'd better start talking, or I'm walking away."

Still, no words came out of his mouth.

"Alright, then. I'm leaving!" I started walking away from the monkey bars.

I heard a little shifting, a sigh, and then, "I don't believe in it anymore."

I turned around to see Danny staring up at me. "You don't believe in what anymore?" I asked.

A pause. More shifting. Hesitation. And then, "Valentines Day. I don't believe in Valentines Day anymore."

I was shocked at this, but I didn't show it. I mean, it was like he was happy the last four Valentines Days, and now, POOF! everything has changed. I walked back up to the monkey bars and sat down next to Danny on his right. I had a lot of questions that moment, but all I could manage to get out of my mouth was, "Why?"

"Because." he answered.

'Thanks, Danny.' I thought. '_That_ explains a lot.' "I mean, how come you don't believe in Valentines Day anymore?"

Danny started to say something, but thought better of it. "I appreciate how you're trying to help me Sam, but I just don't feel like talking right now, if that's okay."

I nodded. "Sure, Danny."

I grabbed onto one of the monkey bars with both hands and started swinging back and forth. I glanced around the park to see if I could find the babies anywhere. A few minutes passed before I spotted them. They were on the other side of the park, on a huge hill, playing catch with Tommy's big star ball. It looked like they were having a blast. Unlike Danny and I who were sitting there by the monkey bars being bored to death.

A few more minutes passed before I spoke to Danny again. "Are you up for a game of catch?" I asked, pointing to where our friends were playing.

"Fine by me." Danny answered.

That was good. At least he sounded a little cheerier.

Danny stood up, while I got off the monkey bars, and then we were on our way toward the hill. Soon enough, we got to a little road covered with dirt. Many of the older kids rode their bikes and skateboards here, so all of us younger kids had to be extremely careful.

I looked both ways before crossing. "Come on, Danny!" I called. "The coast is clear!"

Danny put his foot out inches above the road, hesitated, and then set his foot back onto the soft grass. "I don't know, Sam." he said, nervously. "I'm always afraid that some kid that is way older than me is gonna run me over."

I laughed. "Come on, Danny!" I repeated. "Do you see any older kids around here right now?"

Danny quickly glanced at both sides of the road. "No. But-,"

"Then let's go!"

"But, Sam, I can't!"

I sighed deeply and walked out into the middle of the road. "See, Danny? Here I am standing in the middle of the road, and nothing has come ye-,"

"SAM!" Danny suddenly yelled, pointing to my right. "LOOK OUT!"

I quickly looked to where he was pointing, and screamed. There was a young boy on a skateboard heading in my direction. His eyes widened with a mixture of fear and surprise when he saw me. I started screaming at about the same time as he did.

Suddenly, I felt a shove against my chest. After that I heard some screeching sounds. Then I heard a scream. "AYE KA !"

After that, I had to cover my eyes. I couldn't watch!

_**Y**_ou'd think something would've happened to me. But the weird thing was, I didn't feel any pain. None at all. Not anywhere. I slowly opened my eyes and looked around. I was on the other side of the dirt road!

"How did I get here?" I wondered aloud.

"Sam!"

I turned around. Tucker was running toward me with a mixture of worry and fear on his face. The babies quickly trailed behind him. Their eyes were wide with surprise.

"Sam!" Tucker cried once again. "We saw the whole thing from the top of the hill! Are you alright?"

"Yeah." I answered breathlessly. "I'm fine." I paused for a moment. "How did I get here anyway?"

Tommy answered that question for me. "It was so _cool_ Sam!" he exclaimed. "Danny ran up to the middle of the road and pushed you this way, afore that big wheelie thing gots to you! Then he ran back to the other side of the road afore it gots him!"

"It's a good thing he did that," Chuckie added, "or else you _both_ would've been turned into pamcakes!"

I gasped right after Chuckie had said that. "Danny!" I cried. "Where is he?"

Phil pointed to his left. "I thinks he's over by those bushes over theres!"

I glanced to where Phil was pointing. He was right. Danny was crouching near some big bushes and he seemed like he was all right. But when I saw some feet sticking out of the bushes, and a skateboard right next to Danny's feet, I gasped again.

"Oh, no!" I cried. "We hurt someone!"

I started running toward the scene. I heard my friends following right behind me.

"Danny!" I cried once again when I was in earshot. "Are you okay?"

He nodded, still looking at the bushes. "I'm fine. It's just the kid that we got in the way of I'm worried about."

There was a brief pause.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Tommy asked, with an eager expression on his face. "Let's strengthen our mussels and pulls him outta theres!"

Danny nodded again. "You're right, Tommy. Sam," he said, turning toward me, "you grab his left foot, I'll grab his right."

"What about us?" Phil asked.

"Uh…." I knew right away what Danny was thinking. He was trying to think of something to say to the babies without hurting their feelings. He hated to leave someone out of doing something (if that makes any sense). Danny knew all about that and didn't want to be that kind of a person. Soon enough, he came up with an answer. "Why don't you guys check and see if this kid's hurt when we pull him out," Danny said to them, "that way if he is, we can get him some help."

The babies nodded.

"Okay, Sam." Danny ordered. "On three we'll pull him out. One…."

I bent down toward the boy's feet.

"Two…."

I grasped his left foot with both hands.

"Three!"

Danny and I both drug the boy out of the bushes as fast as we could.

Once we got him completely out of the bushes, I looked down at the boy's face. His eyes were shut tight. He was a short kid with a little bit of a chubby belly. The boy had small, tiny spikes of blonde hair stick straight up out of his head. It seemed to go all around his body. But wait, that wasn't his hair all over his body, it was his _skin_! 'He must not live around here.' I thought. But that wasn't the crazy part. The boy wore a red and white striped shirt, a dark blue helmet and shoes, black elbow and knee pads, and…. A DIAPER? This baby was the one who almost crashed into me on a skateboard? Who almost ran me over? Who Danny saved me from, and almost got ran over himself? I've gotta tell you, I was impressed. From what I saw, this kid rode pretty well.

Suddenly, I heard a small grunt come out of the baby's mouth. I looked at the babies who were now leaning in toward the boy's face. He was sort of violently shifting positions on the ground.

"Is he okay?" Tucker asked, with concern on his face.

"How am I apposed to know?" Phil cried, madly. "He keeps moving!"

"He sure doesn't look like he's okay!" Chuckie pointed out.

"Wait, you guys!" Tommy exclaimed. "I thinks he's waking up!"

"Move over so I can see, Philip!" Lil cried.

"No. I was here firstest! You move over, Lillian!" Phil said back.

"No, you move over Philip!"

"No, you move over Lillian!"

"No, you Philip!"

"No, you Lillian!"

"No, you!"

"No, you!"

"No, you!"

"No, you!"

"No, you!"

"No, you!"

"YOOOOOOOOOOOOOU!"

"YOOOOOOOOOOOOOU!"

"WILL YOU STOP THAT RACKET?" A loud, nasally voice yelled. "YOU GUYS ARE GIVING ME A HEADACHE!"

I turned away from Phil and Lil's argument to see that the baby boy who was resting a moment ago, was now wide awake and ready for action.

"Yep." Tucker said quickly. "He's alright."

The boy stomped up to Tucker. "No I am not alright!" he cried. "Firstest of all, that girl got in the way of this super cool move I was gonna do!" he said, pointing at me. "Second of all," he continued, "the same girl and the boy with the dorky looking hair who threw me off course got dirt on me somehows."

"Hey!" Danny cried. "I happen to like my hair!"

The boy quickly turned toward Danny. "I'm not _done_ yet!" he yelled in Danny's face. He turned back to Tucker. "And elevendy of all," the baby finished at last, pointing to Phil and Lil, "these two look alikes woked me up from my morning nappy! I don't likes it when dumb babies do that!"

"Hey!" Danny exclaimed once again. "Back off! What did they ever do to you?"

"Don't talk back to me bub!" the boy cried, swinging back at Danny. "Don't you even have ears? I said they woke me up from my nappy!"

"Yeah. I heard you already, kid." Danny answered.

"And don't call me that!" the boy said madly. "Call me Bart. Bart Simpson."

"Bart?" Tommy suddenly asked. "What kind of a name is that?"

Bart turned to look at Tommy. "Bart." he answered, dumbly. "You know, as in Bartholomew?"

All of us blinked in confusion.

"What's your name wise guy?" Bart asked, still facing Tommy.

Tommy hesitated, as if he wasn't sure if he should answer or not. A few minutes passed before Tommy decided to finally answer Bart's question. "Tommy Pickles." he mumbled.

Bart tried (Or didn't try. I don't know.) to hold back his laughter, but he burst out laughing anyway. "What- kind of- a name-is that?" he asked between laughs.

I glanced at Tommy. He looked like he was about to cry. But Danny came to the rescue.

"If you're going to only insult yourself more by calling us dumb babies or by making fun of our names, then just go ride on your skateboard or something! We don't want you here!"

Bart's eyes got wide with surprise for a moment and then they went back into a glare. "SO I'M A BABY! I DON'T CARE! I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANTS WHENEVER I WANTS! I DON'T CARE ABOUT NOBODYS! I'M JUST GONNA TAKE MY SKAKEBOARD AND GOES AS FAR AWAY FROM YOU JERKS AS POSSIBLE!"

"FINE!" Danny yelled after him. "BUT DON'T FORGET, WE WERE ONLY TRYING TO HELP YOU!"

"OKAY!" Bart screamed, stepping back onto the dirt road and setting a foot on his skateboard. "GOODBYE! SEE YA NEVER!" Then he rode off. We watched Bart skate gracefully away until he disappeared from sight.

That's when I had an idea. An idea so crazy, that I would have to ask Danny first _before_ he agreed. But it was crazy enough that it just might work….

Chapter 2: My Crazy Idea and Chuckie's Valentines Day Story

"_**A **_Valentines Day _Dance_?" Danny asked, in shock. "Here? At our _school_? What are they trying to do, poison our minds?"

Danny, Tucker, and I were heading to the cafeteria for lunch, when we happened to notice a huge poster, written in big, bold letters that said:

Valentines Day Dance

at Ghoul Elementary!

Come and Enjoy the Music,

the Snacks, and the Fun!

You Don't Want to Miss the Excitement!

I sighed deeply. After the whole 'Bart Incident', Danny had become more angry about Valentines Day than depressed. "Come on, Danny!" I cried. "This dance looks like it could be fun. And besides," I added, "you used to love to go to these things!"

"Exactly." Danny said, nodding at the poster, and then turning back to Tucker and I. "I _used_ to like going to these so called '_fun_' dances. But I don't like them anymore!" He stomped off toward the lunch room.

Tucker and I gave each other a quick glance, and then we started to follow Danny.

"Uh, dude?" Tucker said to Danny. "No offense or anything but I think you're overreacting about this."

Danny was about to pull the door handle to the cafeteria, when Tucker said this. He paused, and then turned around to face us. "Tucker, we're five years old! We shouldn't be going to some stupid dance just because it's almost Valentines Day! We should at least _enjoy_ our lives before _love_ hits us!" Danny cringed as he said it.

We were all silent for a moment as we walked into the lunch room and sat down at our usual table.

"If you hate the dances so much," I asked, "why don't you just not go?"

"Fat chance." Danny said, pulling out a PB&J sandwich out of his lunch bag. "Remember that checkered button up shirt and those dress up jeans my Mom brought to Tommy's house a few days ago?"

I suddenly burst out laughing. "Those were for _you_?" I glanced at my right. I could see that Tucker was half smiling.

"Yeah." Danny answered glumly.

I stopped laughing. "Sorry." I said quickly. "I shouldn't have laughed. So what did you say to your Mom?"

"I told her I liked the suit, just to make her happy." Danny answered. "I have no choice _but _to go!"

Tucker smiled. "Don't worry, Danny. I'm with you." he said happily. "My Mom's working at the snack table with Chuckie's dad."

"So I assume Chuck's gonna be there." Danny said, perking up a bit.

Tucker nodded. "That's right."

"You know, that's not a bad idea!" I exclaimed.

"What is?" Danny and Tucker asked together.

"I invite Phil and Lil to the dance, and Danny invites Tommy, and we can all go together!" I answered happily.

"That's great!" Danny cried. "Let's do it!"

Tucker opened up a carton of chocolate milk and started drinking it. I figured now that Danny was happy again, I should tell him my crazy idea.

"Hey, Danny?"

"Yeah?"

"I was thinking, maybe Bart should join our ghost group."

Tucker choked on his milk, and spit it out across the table.

"WHAT?" Danny and Tucker cried. They looked at me in disbelief.

"I know he's mean," I explained, "but we've been searching for other babies for months and he's just one of the right ones we're looking for! He knows how to bully someone around, to stand up to people, he even knows how to ride a skateboard for Pete's sake! Can't we let him join?"

"Hmm," Danny said sarcastically, and tapping his chin, "let me think. No. No. No. No."

"_**N**_O! NO! NO! NO! NO!" Danny cried.

We were at Tommy's house eating Valentines Day cookies that Mrs. Pickles had made for us. She was also going to work at the snack table for the Valentine's Day Dance. We had to try the cookies to see which ones we liked the best. Those kind would go to the dance.

As you can probably tell, Danny still wasn't thrilled about my idea for Bart joining our group. "NO! NO! NO! NO!" he yelled.

"Okay!" I cried with frustration. "We get it already! We're here to see what the babies think anyway! Phil and Lil?"

The twins glanced at each other for a second, then looked back at me. "No!" they answered.

"Thanks for helping you guys!" I said sarcastically. "Chuckie?"

"Well," he said nervously, "he's sort of like Angelica, and she's not in our group!"

I sighed loudly. "Tommy?"

A few minutes of silence passed until Tommy answered. "Sorry, Sam." he mumbled. "We can't let him join our team! He almost made me cry! Member?"

"Well," Danny exclaimed, rubbing his hands together, "that's that! Bart Simpson is officially out of the group and out of our lives! Now, let's get back to eating these cookies."

I was so angry right then, but I didn't show it. Sometimes my friends don't think before they answer. Think about it! We had been searching for months to find people for our group. And we hadn't found anybody! We only had seven members so far. And when an opportunity like this shows up, they just ignore it? I was so mad, I could….

Wait a minute! I forgot to mention what this whole group thing was about didn't I? Well, during our very first summer vacation, Danny won some plane tickets for a trip to Lake Eerie. There were enough tickets that all of our parents could go on the plane, and us kids could ride for free.

Lake Eerie wasn't fun at all. It was the worst place in the world to go camping. The lake was smelly, the cabins were all busted, there was no electricity, and there were no bathrooms at all except for an outhouse.

Come to think of it, I never even did use that outhouse. It was really gross looking, and just how many people _used_ that thing anyway? I would just sneak into the woods when no one was looking, and go to the bathroom there. I mean, why not? It wasn't like animals didn't pee there all of the time.

Speaking of animals in the woods, that's where we met Steve. Danny and Chuckie were heading to the woods to use the bathroom themselves, when they found a baby owl with an injured leg. The next morning, Danny introduced him to the rest of us. We decided to give him a name. After so many choices of names we finally settled upon Steve. It was Tommy's idea.

Steve lives in the Amity Park woods now. All of us agreed that he was Danny's new pet since his hamster had died during the summer. That and the fact that we didn't know what to do with him. Danny had snuck him onto the plane somehow on our way back, and now he's part of our group. I guess you can say we actually have eight members so far.

Danny had gotten a 'craving for blueberries' just after we got back from Lake Eerie. His dad would buy little bag of blueberries for Danny each week, and he would pretend to go upstairs and eat them. But Danny would actually hide them in a box in his closet and put it on the top self. Then during the night, when Steve was awake, he would fly to Danny's house, tap on his bedroom window softly with his beak, and Danny would wake up right away (He's a very light sleeper most of the time.). Then he would slowly get out of his bed, open his closet, grab the box, open the window, and feed Steve some of the blueberries. Blueberries were Steve's favorite food. Danny would then talk to Steve for about an hour. Then he would say goodnight to Steve and go to back to sleep while the baby owl flew around Amity Park looking for mice or something.

Anyway, back to my story. When Danny, Tommy, and I went into the woods to find something for Steve to eat, we found out there were ghosts haunting Lake Eerie! Soon, we found out who the ghosts were and as quickly as we could, we went across the lake to investigate what they were up to. Eventually, we found out we were wrong about who the culprit was. It turned out to be Danny's dad's best friend from college, Vlad Masters and his little shape shifting ghost friend S.T. Sohg!

After destroying their machine, we headed back to our cabins. I found out from Danny that Vlad and S.T. would want their revenge on us for what we did to them someday, and we would need more people (or babies if you want to call it that) to help us for when he does come back. The babies (not including Tucker) think this is all a 'just in case it happens' thing. They don't know this war is actually going to happen. That's probably why they think Bart being in our group really isn't all that necessary. Which it definitely is.

I sighed again. "Fine." I mumbled. "But don't you guys think that this conversation is over, because it isn't."

I glanced over to see Tucker rolling his eyes. I smiled slyly to myself and threw one of the Valentine's Day cookies at him.

"Ow!" Tucker cried. "What was that for?"

"For rolling your eyes at my idea." I answered. "You really shouldn't do that when the person you're indicating is in the room."

I spotted Tucker rolling his eyes again. I picked up another cookie and this time Tucker held his hand up to block my throw. I shrugged and bit into the heart shaped goodness. There was no point in throwing the cookie at him now.

As I was chewing I noticed Phil was holding the same cookie he had had five minutes ago in his hands. He was rotating and examining it with a puzzled expression on his face.

"What's wrong, Phil?" I asked. "If you don't like the cookie, you can give it to one of us."

"Oh, no." Phil answered, looking up at me and waving his left hand side to side, "I like the cookie. It's just that, I don't get why they're shaped like our butts!"

Danny and Tucker burst out laughing. I gave a Phil a little grin.

"They are?" Lil asked, with a disgusted look on her face. "Gross!"

Tommy giggled. "I don't thinks they're butts, Phil!" he said, with a smile on his face. "I thinks it's apposed to be a like one of those thingies on the house up theres!" He pointed to the paper mobile with red and pink hearts hanging from the ceiling.

"What _are_ those thingies anyways?" Phil asked, looking up at the ceiling.

"They're _so_ prettyful!" Lil exclaimed.

"They're called hearts." Danny replied.

We all stared at him. Danny had actually answered a Valentine's Day question! Finally! It was about time!

"What?" Danny cried. "I was only answering Phil's question!"

We still kept looking at him.

After a few minutes of silent staring, Danny finally said, "May I be excused for a few minutes? I have to use the bathroom."

"Sure!" Tommy exclaimed. "Go ahead!"

"Thanks!" Danny cried.

We watched him run as fast as he could down the hall. We kept watching until he disappeared from view.

A few more minutes of silence passed before Tommy turned his head toward me. "Hey, Sam!" he cried. "What eggzactly is Valemtime's Day?"

The babies' attention turned toward me.

I smiled. "Well, Valentine's Day, it's kind of hard to explain what it is." I said. "But it's a really special day and um…" My mind just went blank then. What was I supposed to say next? "Tucker can you explain it to them?"

Tucker shrugged apologetically. "Sorry, Sam!" he cried. "The only one who can explain to them what Valentine's Day is Danny, and he's not in the mood for it anymore!"

I groaned. Valentine's Day was only one day away. How were the babies going to celebrate it if they didn't know what the holiday was?

"I can eggsplain it!" a voice cried, happily.

I looked back to see Chuckie smiling up at me. That was surprising.

"Okay then!" I sighed with relief. "Go for it!"

"Well," Chuckie began, "it was almost one year ago. I didn't eggzactly know any of you guys back then, but I members most of the story."

"Go ahead, Chuckie!" Tommy exclaimed, "Tell us the story!"

"Well, okay." Chuckie answered. "I was at Danny's and Sam's and Tucker's school…."

_**I**__t was Valemtimes Day,_ _and my Daddy was working at the puncher bowl. I was only one year old, almost two. I didn't haves much hairs yet or my glassys_. _I had only just started walking_. _So I didn't know a lot about what the rest of the world looked like just yet_._ But I would_,_ once I founded someone to play with_.

_My Mommy, afore she died, would takes me to the school all of the time. She was a teacher there, and the school had a daycare center. I really didn't have any friends theres. All the kids would do was pick on me all of the time. And the lady theres would have to send the kids in time outs many more times than I could members. Those meanie kids would also takes away my snacks and my cookies too! I would cry when these things happened, and feel really, really ascared for what happened next._

_But what I didn't realize was that all of that was about to change._

_My Mommy was helping out with the school Valemtimes Day dance. So, as usual I was put in the daycare center. I was really hoping that those meanie kids weren't going to be there because I needed some time to thinks._

"_**T**_hinks about whats?" Phil asked.

"Valemtimes Day!" Chuckie exclaimed. "I wanted to know what this whole day was about. I didn't gets it at alls."

"Then what happened, Chuckie?" Tommy asked, with an eager expression on his face.

"I met you then, Tommy!"

"Huh?" we all cried in confusion.

"Wait, wait, wait!" I cried. "I thought you met Tommy, Phil, and Lil at that big barbeque your parents had when you moved here a few months ago!" I was extremely confused.

Chuckie shook his head. "No." he answered. "We met once afore. I just didn't know it until just a few days ago! You see, when I was at the daycare center, there was a huge playpen in middle of the room this time. There was also a big sign on it." Chuckie added. "The nice lady who taked cares of me while I was theres said the sign said, 'Elephants'.

I burst out laughing. "I think you mean infants, Chuckie."

"So that asplains it!" Chuckie cried. "Those kids sure didn't look like baby elephants!"

"Come on, Chuckie!" Tucker exclaimed. "Tell us the rest of the story!"

"Okay, then!" Chuckie said, smiling. "Anyways…."

_**I** was thinking about Valemtimes Day near the infant babies playpen. I just needed to figure out what it was all about just in case the biggerer kids were coming. Was it about the parties, the moosic, all of the nummy foods? Just what was it that made Valemtimes Day so special?_

_I was still thinking about this, when I heared a noise._

"_Dabba!" it said._

_I turned around. Tommy was staring up at me. Well, I didn't knows it was Tommy yets, but you guys gets the points!_

"_Are you talking to me?" I asked him._

"_Daa!" Tommy cried, happily._

"_I'm sorry, kid." I said, sadly. "I'm kinda busy!"_

"_Bee?" Tommy asked._

"_No. I'm not thinking about bees." I answered. "I'm trying to figure out what this whole Valemtimes Day is abouts."_

"_Gooby?"_

"_You know," I started to explain, "Valemtimes Day? The reason you're here in the daycare centers right nows? I don't gets what it means."_

_Tommy started chewing on a block._

"_You know," I cried, "blocks isn't for eating!"_

_He kept on chewing it._

"_You don't understands a words I'm saying, do you?" I asked._

_Tommy looked up at me with a puzzled expression on his face._

_I groaned. "I wish I just had one friend that would play with me. Then I wouldn't get teased and picked on no mores!"_

_Tommy rolled over on his stomach and giggled._

_I smiled. "Maybe you could be my friend." I said happily. "If only I knowed your name!"_

_We were both silent for a minute. Soon I heard a grunting noise. I turned toward the playpen again. It was Tommy. I was afraid that he was gonna throw up or something._

"_Kid?" I cried. "Kid, are you okay?"_

"_T-T-T-," Tommy mumbled. He was straining his voice._

"_Yes?" I asked eagerly. I was panicking now. I was wondering whether I should start crying or not. I was so ascared. And when I mean ascared, I mean more ascared than usual. I didn't knows whats to do._

_I decided to start crying. Before the tears even got to my eyes, I heard Tommy say something else._

"_T-T-T-Tom-my." he mumbled._

"_What?" I asked, nervously._

"_T-Tom-my." he answered. "M-My name's T-Tommy. What's yours?"_

_I gasped. "You weren't able to talk afore!" I exclaimed._

"_Really?" Tommy asked. "I guess it just sort of happened. Oh, and you didn't answer my question." he added._

"_Oh!" I cried. "Sorry. My name's Chuckie."_

"_Chuckie." Tommy said quietly. "I likes that name."_

_I smiled at him. I knews that we was gonna gets along just fines._

_Right after Tommy hads saids that, those meanie kids comed up to us._

"_Hey, Finster!" the leader cried. "You gots us those Dummi Gummi Bears packs for us, right?"_

"_Chuckie," Tommy whisperered, "who are those guys?"_

_I woulda answerered him, but I couldn't. I was too ascared._

"_I'm-I'm sorry, Dash!" I cried. "I-I tried to get em, but they was on the table. Plus, they was up too high and I-,"_

"_**W**_hoa!" Tucker gasped. "Did you say his name was Dash?"

"Yeah." Chuckie said, nodding.

"Do you happen to remember what he looked like?" I asked, as casually as I could.

"I thinks so." Chuckie answered. "He was tall. He had yellow hair. And he was real mean and scary!"

"He goes to our school!" Tucker exclaimed. "Ow!"

I had nudged him with my elbow. I didn't want Tucker to tell Chuckie, about Dash. I mean, if he was going to be at the dance enjoying himself, why worry him?

Unfortunately, the babies had heard Tucker because Lil asked, with a hint of worry in her voice, "You don't thinks he'll be at the Valemtimes Day dance tomorrow, will he?"

"I hopes not!" Chuckie cried. "My tummy still feels funny every time I thinks about him!"

"You know," I quickly jumped in, "I heard Dash doesn't do parties or dances that have to do with school."

"Really?" Chuckie asked, hopefully.

"Yeah!" I exclaimed. "I'm sure he won't even be there!"

As you probably figured out, that was a complete lie. Dash _loved _being the party crasher. I've seen him interrupting the older kids and couples, pouring mouthwash into the punch, throwing fists at innocent kids when the supervisors weren't around, and many other bad things he's done over the years. There was no way Dash was going to miss an event like this! No way! I would be completely shocked if he didn't show up at the dance at all. I just didn't want to spoil the babies' fun.

Lil turned back to Chuckie. "Come on, Chuckie!" she cried. "Tell us what Valemtimes Day is all about!"

"Yeah, Chuckie!" Tommy exclaimed. "Finish the story!"

Chuckie nodded slowly. "Okay," he mumbled, "now where was I?"

"Dash was asking you if you got Dummi Gummi Bears for him and his friends." Tucker answered.

Chuckie grinned. "Oh, yeah!"

"_**Y**__ou didn't get us the Dummi Gummi Bears?" Dash asked, madly._

"_Yeah!" his friend Quan yelled. "You didn't-,"_

"_Shut up, Quan!" Dash said, spinning around to face him. "I'm doing the talking here!" He turned back to me. "Now, is there something you'd like to tell me, Finster?"_

"_Well_…._" I cried, nervously, "You see_…. _I_…. _No."_

_Dash growled at me._

"_But I tried my bestest!" I quickly added._

"_Look Finster," Dash whispered, as he grabbed the front of my red rocket shirt, "I don't care if you tried your best. I don't care if you tried your worst. What I do care about is that YOU DIDN'T GET ME AND QUAN OUR TREATS!" He sighed loudly. "So, do you know what I'm going to do to you, Finster?"_

"_W-What are you gonna do?" I gulped._

_Dash smiled at me with that meanie smile he always used to gives to me. "I'm going to show you one of the greatest tricks in the world. It's time for you to meet _The Whirlpool_!"_

"_The Whirlpool?" I gasped. "No! Don't do it! You can't makes me!"_

"_Oh yes, we can!" Dash cried with a smile on his face._

"_Yeah!" Quan said meanly. "We sure-,"_

"_Be quiet, Quan!" Dash cried, angrily._

_I could hear Tommy crying out my name as those two meanies leds me to my doom._

_**D**__ash and Quan dragged me into the daycare's boys' bathroom. They led me into one of the potty holder thingies and shut the door thingy behind them. I didn't like this one bit. Eggspecially because I didn't know whats a potty was back then. I thoughts it really _was _a whirlpool!_

_I was so ascared, I was shaking all over. I didn't even notice it, until Dash started talking. _

"_Finster," he cried, "this is the whirlpool! Whenever dumb babies like you don't do as Quan and I say, this is where they end up! So, since you didn't get us our Dummi Gummi Bears, you are about to get what you deserve! Quan, would you show our little _friend_ here how this is going to work?"_

_Quan gave me that meanie smile again, and pushed down on the potty's flusher handle. It maked a really loud noise that maked me shiver. I watched as the water swirled downward and went away. I smiled and stopped shaking. I figured that maybe since the water went away, maybe I wouldn't have to get my head putted in The Whirlpool. But then, all of the sudden the water camed back up. I gasped and started shivering again._

'_How did it knows it should've done that?' I thought. 'It's like it has magic powers or something!' Either way, I knews that I was doomed. I hads no eggscape._

"_Okay, Finster." Dash whisperered, with a smile on his face. "It time for you to meet your new friend!" He turneded his head towards his pal. "Quan,would you do the honors please?"_

_Quan smiled meanly even more when he pushed down the potty handle the second time. Dash started pushing my head down. I tried my bestest to pull my head back up, but I couldn't. I started to scream._

_Suddenly, I heared a noise. Then I heared footsteps. Then I heared a voice. "Chuckie, can you hear me?"_

"_Tommy!" I cried. He had come to save me! Thank goodness!_

"_Quit talking to your little imaginary friends!" Dash yelled, pulling my head back up._

_I gaves a quick sigh of happiness. I was so close to getting my head wet. But Tommy had come to the rescue. I knew that I was gonna be okay. Or not. I didn't really know what he was like back then._

"_Hang in there, Chuckie!" Tommy yelled through the flusher noise. "I've gots a plan! I'm not sure if it'll work though."_

"_Try anything!" I yelled back._

_Dash pulled my head up again. "I told you to stop talking!" he growled. "Now I'm gonna take you to the bigger whirlpool!"_

"_No!" I cried, as Dash and Quan taked me by the arms again. "W-Whats dids I ever do to you guys anyways? Don't makes me do this!"_

_Dash pulled on the metal potty door thingy, and opened the door. _

"_Huh?" he cried._

_My eyes was closed a moment agos, so I opened them. I gasped. Tommy and a few of his infant friends were standing in front of us, surrounding the whole bathroom. I couldn't believes this was all happening._

"_Hey, what gives?" Dash asked._

"_Okay, babies and genermen!" Tommy said, with a smile on his face. "Let's squirts them!"_

_All of the babies takeded out their bottles and started squirting Dash and Quan like crazy. A few splats of milk on them was all it took for them to lets goes of me. They wents falling backward. I ran towards my new friend and hugged him._

"_Thanks, Tommy!" I said, happily. "If it weren't for you and your friends heres, I would've been suckeded down the Whirlpool by nows!"_

"_No problem, Chuckeroo!" he cried. "Now let's teach these meanies a lesson!" Tommy turned back to his crew. "Okay babies, march and pulls the trigger! GOES! GOES! GOES!"_

_Tommy and I ran out of the bathroom and back to the daycare center just after he maked that command. A few minutes later, Tommy sticked his head back through the bathroom door. I heared him yells, "FREE TREATS! FREE TREATS!"_

_I grinned at Tommy when he and the other babies camed out. "Free treats?" I asked with a smile on my face. "You don't gots any treats!"_

_Tommy shrugged. "My Grandpa says it's a word that the army uses to gets peoples to come back to where they started afore the war began!"_

"_Oh!" I cried. We all stood theres quietly for a moment. Finally, I said something. "Does you guys wanna have some Valemtimes Day cookies at the snack table?"_

"_Oh, boy!" Tommy cried. "I do!"_

"_Us toos!" the other babies cried._

"_**S**_o Tommy, me, and the other babies gots our cookies and juice from the snack table, and Dash and Quan never bugged us again!" Chuckie cried. "The End!"

Instead of clapping at the end of the story, we all burst out laughing. Even Chuckie was giggling! I mean, Dash and Quan lost to a bunch of babies? What losers!

"Wait." Lil said, suddenly frowning. "How does this asplain to us what Valemtimes Day is?"

We all stopped laughing to see what Chuckie had to say.

"It's simple." Chuckie answered. "Valemtimes Day is about loving the peoples you cares abouts and helps outs the mostest. Right, Sam?"

I nodded. He got it exactly right.

"Hey," Tommy suddenly exclaimed, "I think I member the story now! And I also thinks I member what I made the other babies do to Dash and Quan!"

"What?" Tucker asked happily. "Tell us!"

Tommy gave a sly grin. "Let's just say we gived them a whirlpool back!" he exclaimed.

We laughed even harder.

"What's so funny?"

I looked up. Danny was watching us with a puzzled expression on his face.

"Where were you all this time?" I asked.

"I already told you." Danny said, pointing down the hall. "I was in the bathroom. Now, what's making you guys laugh so hard?"

'He's hiding something from us.' I thought. 'He couldn't possibly have been in the bathroom for over half an hour.'

I ignored that thought for a moment and answered his question.

"Chuckie used to get picked on by Dash and Quan at the daycare at our school when his Mom used to work there. Apparently, Chuckie met Tommy once before on Valentines Day _at _that daycare center and Tommy and his other friends gave Dash and Quan a swirly."

"No, way!" Danny exclaimed, a smile spreading across his face. "Tommy, Chuck, you've got to tell me the whole story! I need a good laugh right about now!"

So, Chuckie and Tommy told us the whole story again. Danny was right. We all needed a good laugh after what happened at the park yesterday, and because of Danny's mood. The Dash and Quan story was even _funnier_ the second time.

A few minutes after the story ended, Mrs. Pickles walked into the room. "Kids," she said, "do you mind if we stop by Ghoul Elementary for a little while? I need to help with the decorating for tomorrow's dance. I promised Mrs. Simpson I would help. She's having a baby soon."

"Sure, Mrs. Pickles." I replied. "No problem!"

As we started walking toward the front door, I felt a tap on my left shoulder. I turned around. It was Danny.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Mrs. Pickles said that the person she's helping has the last name Simpson." Danny said suspiciously. "You don't think it's-,"

"Don't worry, Danny!" I cried. "Simpson is a very common last name. The odds of her being Bart's mother is very unlikely."

But even as I said it, I was really unsure.

Chapter 3: Bart's Survey

"_**W**_ow!" Tommy exclaimed. "This playground is really big!"

Actually, our school's gym was pretty small. There were only two basketball hoops, our assembly stage, and tape all over the floor. The assortment of balls, jump ropes, hula hoops, timers, baskets, and many other types of physical equipment were stashed behind a big closet type door. But I guess if you've never been in a gym before, you can say it's pretty big.

Danny laughed. "It's called a gym, Tommy."

"Really?" Tommy asked, with a surprised look on his face. "Who's Jim?"

Danny laughed once more and was about to answer Tommy's question when I heard a gasp escape his mouth. I turned around to see what Danny was looking at. I let out a gasp too. Standing a few feet from us was Bart Simpson and a lady who I assumed was his mom.

She was way different than Bart. And not just because of her appearance. Bart's mom was nice and kind and very joyful. She was much taller (of course) and seemed like she was a slim woman before she became pregnant. Bart's mom wore a green T-shirt, a big pair of jeans, red high heel shoes, and a red necklace. But what really amazed me was her hair. It was dark blue and was like three feet above her head! If not, more. I wondered how she got it to do that.

"Thank you so much for helping me, Didi." Bart's mom said, gratefully. "I really appreciate it! After all, I'm working for two now." She patted her round stomach as she said it.

"Not a problem, Marge!" Mrs. Pickles cried. "Besides, I'm happy to help. Have you picked out a name for her yet?"

"Not yet." Mrs. Simpson answered. "Homer keeps saying he wants to name her Ms. Madison Jessie, but I keep telling him no."

Mrs. Pickles sighed. "Boys will be boys." she said, shaking her head. "Stu wanted to name Tommy Malcolm Finn Pickles. So, when we chose the name, I made Tommy's middle name Malcolm that way we would both be happy."

Mrs. Simpson nodded. "I know Bart's excited to meet his new baby sister. Aren't you Bart?"

Bart grinned. "Yes, Mommy." he said innocently. "I'm looking forward to spending time with the new baby."

My eyes grew wide with surprise. 'I couldn't talk until I was two!' I thought. 'Bart's an early bloomer! Look how he's using that innocent act to kiss up to his mom. He's just like Angelica, except much less worse.' I shuttered. 'He makes me sick.'

"Oh, look Bart!" Mrs. Simpson suddenly exclaimed, pointing to us. "It's your little friends from the park! Go over and say hi to them!"

Bart smiled. "Okay, Mommy!" he cried.

Bart toddled over to us. The closer he got, the bigger his frown.

"So," Bart said, glaring at Danny, "we meet again."

"Yeah." Danny said, angrily. "What's it to you?"

Bart smirked. "Oh, nothing." he mumbled, turning around and flexing his eight fingers. "It's just that my Mommy said _I've_ been such a good little boy lately that _I_ get to come to the dance tomorrow night! Have_ you _been a _good little boy,_ Danny?" Bart asked, spinning around to face him. "Or have you been tripping other innocent kids on skateboards?"

Danny gave Bart an even bigger glare. "No." he answered. "What are you, Bart? The skateboard patrol person now?"

To my surprise, Bart shook his head. "Nope!" he cried. "I'm part of the slingshot patrol!" He quickly rummaged through his diaper and pulled out a wooden slingshot.

'You have got to be kidding me!' I thought. 'He has a slingshot too? Is there anything that Bart Simpson _can't_ do?'

"Cool!" Tommy exclaimed. "Where did you get that?"

Danny slapped his forehead.

"I maked it!" Bart said, proudly.

"Whoa!" I cried. Danny and Tucker glared at me, and I quickly caught myself. "I mean, time out! You _made_ this?"

Bart nodded happily. "Why? Do you likes it or something?" he asked as casually as he could.

I hesitated for a moment. Then I nodded. "I think it's awesome!"

"HUH?" my friends all cried at the same time.

Danny turned to Bart again. "Hey, Bart." he started. "I don't mean to be rude or anything, but can we all talk to Sam in private for a moment?"

"Eh, whatever." Bart said, glancing down at his slingshot and waving us off to his right.

"Thanks." Danny said, with no expression on his face.

We all walked toward the gym door. Once he was sure we were out of earshot, Danny turned toward me and sternly whispered, "Sam! What the heck were you thinking? You can't encourage the enemy!"

"Yeah!" Tucker cried. "The next thing you know, you'll be hanging out with kids just like him!"

"What did I do wrong?" I asked, madly. "It's not like I told him to eat sand and then jump off the school building!"

"Although, that _would_ be a good idea!" I heard Phil whisper to Lil.

"Plus, how can you expect to believe that he _made_ that slingshot?" Danny asked. "It looks perfect! Babies can't make slingshots that look _that_ perfect! No offense, you guys." he quickly added.

The babies shrugged. "Fine by us!" they exclaimed in unison.

"Anyways, you can't like him, Sam!" Chuckie cried. "He's just…. He's just plain not very nice!"

I sighed. "But, I _know_ there's some good in Bart." I said, eagerly. "It's just deep down inside his heart where he can't quite reach it yet! Can't we just let him join our ghost group?" I asked. "Or we can have a group meeting! We'll ask Bart some questions and see if he's worthy enough to join. Just please do something to help save us from having only eight members! Please!"

Everyone was in an awkward, hesitating position. I knew this wasn't a good sign….

_**O**_r, maybe it was! The eight of us were sitting in a big circle, on the dirty floor of the boys' bathroom. I always wanted to know what it was like in here, but this was not the way _I_ imagined it would happen.

"But, what if we get caught?" I asked Danny nervously, when we entered the restroom just minutes before.

Danny laughed. "How are we gonna get caught?" he asked. "It's the _boys'_ bathroom!"

"Oh!" I said sarcastically. "I don't know. Maybe because, LIL AND I ARE _GIRLS!"_

"Oh, right!" Danny cried. He glanced around. "Hide in a stall!" he finally said after a few minutes of silence.

"Gross!" I said, with a disgusted look on my face. "I am _not_ hiding in one of _those _things!"

Danny shrugged. "Suit yourself!" he said, walking over to find himself a spot on the floor.

So I guess we were all stuck in there for now until we figured out if Bart would be a new member of our group. I just hoped it wouldn't take too long, because I was afraid that if I got caught in the boys' bathroom, it would've gone down on my permanent record. Imagine having _that_ haunt you for the rest of your school years!

I didn't like this one bit. But, I guess I should've been grateful. I got _part_ of what I wanted. I just hoped this whole survey thing didn't get nasty.

Once everyone was seated, Danny gave a small speech. "Bart," he started, "the reason why we have brought you to the um, boys' bathroom today is to ask you some trivia questions. This is how it will work. Each of us will ask you a different question, and you will answer each of them truthfully."

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" Tommy cried, waving his arms up and down to get Danny's attention. "I gots a question! I gots a question!"

"In order for me to let you tell me your question," Danny explained, "you need to raise your hand."

"Oh. Okay!" Tommy raised his left hand.

"Yes, Tommy?"

"Why do we needs to raise our hands?"

"Because," Danny answered, "that's what you do in school."

"Oh." Tommy said, nodding his head. He raised his hand again.

"Yes, Tommy?"

"How do we know if Bart's gonna tells the truth?" Tommy asked.

"Yeah!" Bart sneered. "How are you gonna know?"

Danny smiled. "Do like the good luck bracelet I gave you, Bart?" he suddenly asked.

"I sure do!" Bart cried.

"Well, too bad!" Danny said, with a smile on his face. "It really isn't a good luck bracelet. That bracelet has a special lock with a password that only _I_ know. If you tell us the truth you will not be harmed. If you don't, well, you'll see what happens!"

Bart suddenly burst out laughing and rolled all over the dirty bathroom floor. Tears were streaming down his yellow face. It seemed like he couldn't control himself.

"What's so funny?" Danny asked, with a puzzled look on his face.

"That was great!" Bart exclaimed, wiping the tears off his face. "You _actually_ expect me to believe that this bracelet will be able to tell my truths from my lies? Are you guys serious?" Bart started laughing hysterically again.

"Really." Danny said, with no expression on his face. "What color is the sky, Bart?" he asked.

Once he controlled his laughter, Bart answered Danny's question. "Let me thinks," he said, as he tapped his chin with his forefinger, "to prove _my_ point, I'm gonna have to goes with orange!"

Bart let out a few more giggles, before he started shaking violently and started jumping up and down. He kept doing this for about twenty more seconds, until his voice came buzzing out of his mouth. "MAAAAAAKKKKE ITTTT STOOOOP!"

"Danny!" I gasped. "You're gonna give him a headache! Stop it _now_!"

"I can't!" he cried. "The bracelet is programmed to do this for about a minute. Trust me, it'll make him stop then!"

A few more seconds passed, and Bart came to a halt. He was breathing heavily, and had what looked like a look of fear in his eyes. "W-What did you do that for?" he asked, angrily.

"You lied." Danny stated simply. "Now then," he continued like nothing unusual had just happened, "we'll ask questions from youngest kid to oldest kid. Phil's the youngest, so he gets to ask first. Phil?"

"Okay." Phil mumbled. "Um, when were you born?"

Bart smiled. "March 17, 1994." he answered happily. (I really don't know when any of these characters were born, so just play along with me here. I'm only guessing what I think is about right!)

"And where do you live?" Lil asked.

"England." Bart started jumping violently again.

"You're just making this more complicated for yourself." Danny said, with a frown. But I could tell by his expression that on the inside, he was enjoying Bart's misery.

"Fine." Bart cried after the bracelet finished its job. "I live in Springfield."

"Ooh!" Tommy cried, excitedly. "Springfield! Which one do you lives in?" he asked, with curiosity.

Bart rolled his eyes, like Tommy asked him if he eats grass and dirt on his breakfast cereal. "How am I apposed to know!" he yelled, throwing his arms up into the air. "The one in this state I guess!"

"W-What about your baby sister?" Chuckie asked, nervously. "What are you planning to do with hers?"

Bart chuckled. "I've gots special plans for her!" he said, smirking.

My eyes became wide with fear. "What are these so called plans?" I asked. I didn't even recognize my own voice for a moment.

"You know," Bart said, answering my question, "I'll teach hers stuffs that she will never forget about. _Ever_."

What Bart just said sent a shiver down my spine. Was he really going to torture his new sister? I could just picture Bart shooting slingshots at the baby, running over her on his skateboard, and spitting on his sister's face. I was _really_ thankful that I wasn't Bart's sister. If that happened (and if it were my choice), I would've probably stayed in my special little 'cave'.

Danny nodded, like that was something he shouldn't be concerned about. "Okay, Tuck." he said, nodding. "It's your turn to ask a question."

"Okay." Tucker said, uncertainly. "Um, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

Bart smiled, looking pleased with himself. He didn't hesitate to answer this question. "I want to be one of those peoples who destroys buildings with those giant balls!" he cried. "I love putting those little blocko pieces together and then tearing them down again."

"So you love to cause destruction." Danny said, raising his left eyebrow.

Bart nodded happily. "It's great."

"Then how did you get that slingshot?"

Bart sighed loudly. "I already _told_ you, I _maked_ it!"

I quickly glanced at Bart's lie detector bracelet.

'That's weird.' I thought. 'Why isn't it going off?' A few seconds passed before it hit me. He was telling the _truth_. 'Duh, Sam. What else?'

Danny nodded. "Now if you'll excuse us for a moment." he said to Bart, apologetically. He grabbed my left arm and Tucker's right, and dragged us out into the hall. The deal was since Danny, Tucker, and I were the three oldest kids of our whole group of friends, we would be the ones who would make the decision of Bart joining our group.

Tucker took out a notepad and a pencil. "Here you go, dude." he said handing them over to Danny.

I glanced at both of them with surprise. I didn't know they were taking notes. This wasn't a group meeting. It was a survey!

"Okay." Danny sighed. "Let's get started shall we? Question number one." he started. "Phil's question: When were you born? Bart said, March 17, 1994. It's _obvious_ he was telling the truth there. He's pretty good at keeping track of the days."

I grabbed the notepad from his hands and looked at the first question. "That doesn't mean anything!" I cried. "I mean, how do you forget your own birthday?"

Danny's been my best friend since I was born. And I should know, he jumps to conclusions _way_ too quickly. One time, he thought Dash was a creature from outer space, which is a very long story by the way. Everyone in school found out about it and told Dash that Danny was the one who was telling all these horrible rumors about Dash being a bug from space with four eyes, wings, a vacuum suction type mouth, and….yeah. You really don't want to hear how the story ends.

"Fine." Danny said, grabbing the notepad out of my hands. "We'll put that as a positive and negative answer for Bart." He put a little plus and minus sign next to the question.

"Question number two." Danny continued. "Lil's question: Where do you live? He lied to us that time, remember?"

"But then he told the truth after that!" I cried. "Let's give Bart a break and give him a positive on this one. He said he lived in Springfield, but when Tommy asked him which one he lives in, he didn't know." I turned to Tucker. "Tell him, Tuck!"

Tucker looked very unsure at the moment. That wasn't really like him. He tries to cheer us up when we're sad, even if he has to make a few bad jokes along the way. Tucker uses bad table manners sometimes when he knows he needs to do something important. And not to mention, when any of us have a question for him, he _always_ has an answer even if the answer is ridiculous. He even answers the babies' difficult questions!

Finally, after a few minutes of silence, Tucker finally said, "Just go ahead and put it as a positive for Lil's question and a negative for Tommy's."

"Okay, then." Danny wrote on the notepad again. "Question number four. Chuckie's question: What are you planning to do with your baby sister?"

Another shiver ran down my spine. That question kept giving me the chills. "He said he had plans for her." I said, nervously. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

Danny shrugged.

"Well," Tucker said, taking the notepad from Danny, "I guess that would be a good thing because he's planning to spend time with his new sister. But, on Sam's question: What are these so called plans?, Bart said he would teach his new sister things that she would never forget. _Ever_. I'm gonna assume that's bad."

I nodded, while Danny scribbled something on the notepad. Now, in case you're wondering, here's what got down on the notepad so far:

Q1: + -

Q2: +

Q3: -

Q4: +

Q5: -

"Wait a minute." I said, glancing at the sheet of paper. "What about question number six?"

"What about it?" Danny asked.

"What about it!" I exclaimed with disbelief. "Danny, it was _your_ question!"

"I asked where Bart _got _that slingshot. He said he _made_ it. He was lying to us completely!"

"No he wasn't! Bart was telling the truth! Otherwise his bracelet would've gone off!"

"He probably just fiddled around with the bracelet and made it not go off so it looked like he was telling the truth!"

"What? Bart's hands were in front of him the whole time! I saw them! And you said that the bracelet could only be taken off by you!"

"Yes. _Taken off_. I didn't say anything about fiddling!"

I sighed loudly. "This is nuts." I muttered. "Tucker, will you tell Danny that Bart should join our ghost group?"

"Tuck," Danny started, "will you tell Sam that she has no idea what's she's talking about?"

Tucker's eyes darted from Danny, to me, and back to Danny again. "I'm staying out of this one you guys." he said nervously.

I swung back toward Danny. "What do you _mean _I have no idea what I'm talking about?" There were times where I felt so angry with Danny, where I wanted to just walk away from him for awhile, where I felt like kicking Danny in the….well….you get my point. This was one of those times.

Danny glared right back at me. "What I _mean_ is Bart is a bad kid! He doesn't deserve to be in our group!"

"What are you talking about? The score was a tie!"

"Yeah well, that still doesn't mean he should join!"

Suddenly, the boys' bathroom door opened, and Tommy's head popped out. "Hey, you guys!" he cried happily. "We finded a bag of peanuts in here! Do you guys want-,"

But I was only half listening. "I wish you would just give people a second chance!" I argued.

"Well I wish you stopped thinking about giving other people second chances!" Danny argued back.

I noticed Tucker giving Tommy his 'Help-me. I-don't-want-to-be-in-the- middle-of-this-argument.' look.

Tommy nodded at him, and quickly cried, "Oh, look at this….wall! Isn't it great? Want to goes and stares at it, Tucker?"

Tucker gave Tommy a quick smile, and quickly said, "Yes, Tommy. I would be happy to join you in staring at the, err, wall."

They ran down the hall and started staring at the plain, brick wall.

I would love to tell you my millions of explanations of how pathetic that whole wall situation was, but I can't. I have only a certain amount of time to tell you this story, and I'm not going to waste it.

"You really think I shouldn't give people second chances?" I asked angrily. I couldn't believe this was happening. Danny and I _never_ fight!

Well, okay. Maybe that isn't exactly true. Danny and I fight sometimes, but not too often. When we do fight, the argument goes on for like two seconds and then it ends. We'd usually go on talking like that whole situation hadn't happened. It had never led to this before.

Danny leaned toward my face. He took a deep breath and said, "Y-E-S."

I leaned toward Danny's face, glared at him once more and yelled, "SO MUCH FOR YOUR SECOND CHANCE! GOODBYE!"

After that, I spun away from him, ran toward the school's front door, and out to Mrs. Pickles van. I saw Tucker and Tommy stare at me in shock on my way out. But I didn't care. I was just glad to get away from that traitor.

Chapter 4: Tommy's Big Idea

_**S**_ilence. That's what went on in the Pickles' house the next day. If any of us needed to talk, we spoke in whispers. Which, of course, was very unusual around here. I wondered if Mr. and Mrs. Pickles noticed the quietness of the house. Actually, I was more curious about what they _thought_ about it.

I was still mad at Danny. And quite frankly, I didn't want to make up with him. Not yet, anyway. From this moment on, we weren't friends anymore. I can't say what the babies thought about this. But I was pretty sure they didn't like what was going on.

Danny and Tommy were sitting on the living room floor, in the playpen, playing with Reptar action figures. Chuckie and Tucker were coloring on what were once blank pieces of white paper on the middle of the floor. And Phil, Lil, and I were stacking blocks on top of each other until they fell onto the ground on the other end of the living room. It sounded boring at first, but when the first block tower fell over, I decided it was actually pretty fun.

I was carefully placing two blocks on probably our fiftieth tower of the day (I have no idea what number block tower we were on. I lost count after eight.), when Phil asked me, "So, how was school today?"

I glanced up at him. 'That's weird.' I thought. That was a question that only my parents ask me. Why was Phil so curious all of a sudden?

I tried my best to hide my confusion by keeping a straight face and shrugging my shoulders. "I don't know. Okay I guess. How was your day?"

"Ineresting." Phil said, also with a straight face. "Considering the fact that you and Danny aren't friends anymo-, OW!"

Lil had just nudged her twin brother in the arm. She was glaring at Phil angrily. Right after Phil had made that little announcement to me, I knew that there had been a private conversation between the four babies this morning when Danny, Tucker, and I were at school. I wasn't surprised, really. I mean, the babies had never experienced anything like this before. Of course they would talk about this behind me and Danny's backs! Why wouldn't they?

"Philip!" Lil cried. After that, she quickly turned back toward me with a big smile planted on her face. "What Phil means is, we wanted to know if you hads a good day. We was just wondering."

I grinned at Lil. She always tries and corrects Phil when she thought he was saying something wrong. That's one of the interesting things about Phil and Lil. They're twins, but they have different personalities.

Phil was the silly twin who always cheered all of us up by sticking pretzel sticks halfway up his nose. Phil tells us all the jokes he's heard, even if he doesn't even get some of them himself. And whenever the twins are playing in the mud, Phil was always the one who wanted to play 'muddy fights'.

Then there's Lil. She was the one who always cheers us up by asking what's wrong and talking about it. Lil always made us laugh by playing our favorite games. She occasionally gives in to the 'muddy fights', but most of the time she wants to make 'muddy pies'.

Phil and Lil's personalities help me tell them apart. Besides their voices and the bow in Lil's hair, I mean.

I sighed loudly. Nothing was the same here anymore. I think Lil noticed the sad expression on my face because she turned to Phil and said, "Philip, don't you have anymore of those Reptar Bars in your diapie?"

Phil turned toward his sister with a puzzled expression on his face. "What are you talking about Lillian? We don't gots anymore-, OW!"

Lil had nudged her brother in the arm again. "We are trying to cheer Sam up here, Philip!" I heard her whisper.

"Uh…." Phil glanced at me, then at Lil, then back to me again. He put a big smile on his face. "I mean, sure! We gots a lot more Reptar Bars!" Phil stood up and yelled, "Does anybody want another Reptar Bar?" across the living room.

All of us raised our hands except for Danny.

Tommy glanced at him. "What's the matter Danny?" he asked. "Don't you wants another Reptar Bar? You can't have just one and not have another one. Unless you don't have a choice."

"He doesn't." I stated.

"What do you means?"

"I mean, Danny can't have a second Reptar Bar." I said with no expression on my face. "He's been allergic to those things since he was three years old."

Danny glared at me. "SAM!" he cried.

"What?" I asked, pretending to be innocent. "It's not like you _told_ me not to tell anybody about this."

Okay. Okay. I know it was kind of mean to tell Danny's secrets in front of his playmates. But what was I supposed to do? Tommy asked Danny _why_ he didn't want seconds on Reptar Bars in the first place. Plus, we weren't friends anymore, so what was the point in keeping his secrets anyway?

The babies stared at me with blank expressions on their faces.

"What does lergic mean?" Tommy asked.

Danny sighed. "It means I'm not allowed to eat more than one Reptar Bar before at least an hour or two."

"How come, Danny?"

"Well, let's just say rashes all over my body doesn't work for the doctors, and they won't work for me." Danny mumbled.

Suddenly Chuckie stood up, walked over toward Danny, and patted his back encouragingly. "Don't worry, Danny." he said grinning. "I know what allergies are like. I'm lergic to bee stings, dampylions, catchshoes, cotton swaps-,"

Danny glanced up at Chuckie with a puzzled look on his face. "Cotton swabs?" he asked.

Chuckie shrugged. "The cotton part of it makes me sneeze a lots." he explained. "Anyways, Danny, it's no big deal."

Danny smiled. "Thanks, Chuck. That makes me feel a whole lot better. You're a pretty trustworthy kid." He glared at me once again. "Unlike _some_ people who can't keep a person's secrets!"

I gasped and stuck my tongue out at Danny.

Suddenly, Tucker cried, "Hey, you guys! Lighten up! It's Valentines Day, remember?"

My eyes widened with surprise. I glanced at the calendar that Mrs. Pickles kept on the living room wall. It _was_ Valentines Day! I completely forgot! With all the tension that had been going on since the day before, I guess it just slipped my mind.

"Oh my gosh!" I cried. "My parents must think I don't care about them or something! I forgot today was Valentines Day! I didn't make them a card or anything!"

"I gots mine!" Chuckie exclaimed. It was that white sheet of paper that he was coloring on a moment ago. Chuckie had drawn a heart (Or attempted to make one I guess you could say.) with a bunch of different colored scribbles in it.

"Sorry if you can't reads it." Chuckie said, looking at his weirdly shaped heart and rotating the sheet of paper in circles. "It's aposed to say 'I love you, Daddy!' but I'm still having trouble with some of my motor skills."

"That's very sweet, Chuckie." I said, smiling.

"Wait a minute!" Phil cried, as Chuckie set his work of art down on the coffee table, in front of the pink couch. "You mean we have to makes cards for our parents too?"

"Well, sure you do." Danny said, answering Phil's question. "It's sort of a traditional type of thing."

We all turned our heads toward Danny. "Why do you guys keep doing that?" he asked.

"Keep doing what?" I asked angrily.

"That!" he answered. "Every time someone asks a Valentines Day question and I answer it, you guys just start staring at me! So, stop it! It's creeping me out!"

Like last time, all of us kept staring at him.

Suddenly, "Oh, man! Bladder attack!" Danny dashed down toward the hall. "Sorry, you guys! I'll be right back!"

When I knew Danny was out of sight and out of earshot, I said, "Don't you find this a little bit weird?"

"What do you mean?" Tucker asked.

"The fact that whenever we've been at Tommy's house for the past two or three days, Danny always has to go to the bathroom whenever one of us mentions Valentines Day. Then he comes out of the bathroom like, half an hour later. Kind of suspicious, don't you think?"

Tucker shrugged. "He's probably having a hard week. Trust me, he'll get over it!" He gave me a sly smile after he said that. The babies stared at me with happy expressions on their faces.

"What?" I asked.

Tucker smiled even more. "Are you saying you actually care?"

"What?" I tried my best to fake this. "No, way! Danny and I aren't friends anymore. You know that, and I know that, and nothing's ever going to change that! _Ever_!"

The babies suddenly started laughing. That was really unexpected.

"What's so funny?" I asked. I was totally confused.

Lil smiled. "Are you even hearing yourself, Sam?" she asked.

"What do you mean?"

The babies suddenly stopped laughing and frowned.

'Weird.' I thought. 'First it was silence, then it was laughter, now they're all hesitating. This is too strange.' "Are you guys okay?"

Silence.

"Oh, come on!" I cried. "What the heck is going on?"

Still silence.

"You can trust me! I won't tell anybody!"

The babies hesitated for a few more minutes until Tommy finally spoke. "Well, you see Sam," Tommy started, "this is sort of about you and Danny."

'Of course.' I thought. I nodded slowly, like I wasn't expecting this. "Well, what do you have to say, Tommy?"

"Well…uh…you see…"

"Yes?"

"Well, err, we thinks yours and Danny's friendship is way too strong for you guys to end it, and well, we uh, thinks you two should be friends again. That's all." he said nervously.

I was so mad when I heard this, but I tried my best not to show it. "Tommy, look. It's not that I don't want to be friends with Danny, but he hasn't been treating me fair lately, and he's getting on my last nerve. I need a break from him for awhile, okay?"

Tommy hesitated and glanced at his friends. A minute of silence passed before he sighed and said, "Well, okay, Sam." Then, out of the blue, "Hey, you guys! I gotta idea for how we can make it up to our parents that we don't gots any cards for them!"

"Sweet!" Tucker exclaimed. He always enjoys hearing Tommy's plans. "Shoot!"

"Okay!" Tommy cried. "I mean, I won't shoot anything, but I'll tell you guys my plan." He paused for a moment and then continued. "Me and Danny was looking ats this huge piece of coloring paper that had lots of pretty colors and words on it, and I asked Danny what it said. He said it's for Valemtimes Day pictures! I was thinking maybe we could gets copies of the same pictures for our Mommy's and Daddy's today!"

"Hey, yeah!" Phil exclaimed, immediately standing up after Tommy explained his plan. "Let's do it!"

The babies cheered.

"Wait a minute!" I cried. "Stop cheering you guys! Those pictures cost money you know!"

The babies suddenly became silent.

"B-But we don't gots any moneys!" Lil said with a frown on her face. "Now we'll _never_ gets those pictures for our Mom's and Dad's!"

"Not necessarily." I said happily. "All we need to do is a little math."

I grabbed a blank piece of white paper and a black crayon, and started to figure out how much money we would need to buy some pictures. Here's how I solved it:

7 x 2 = 14.00

9 x 1 = 9.00

= $ 23.00

"That looks real confoosing." Chuckie said, pointing to the piece of paper.

I smiled up at him. "It isn't really. You see, we need seven copies of the same picture. That is if Angelica's gonna be at the dance. If I multiply seven by two dollars a copy, I get fourteen dollars. Now," I continued, "if there's gonna be nine of us in the picture and it costs one dollar for each person to be in picture, you multiply nine times one and get nine dollars. So, now I add fourteen dollars and nine dollars together and I get twenty three dollars total. We need twenty three dollars to pay for the pictures."

Chuckie stared at me with a puzzled look on his face. "I have no idea what you just said." he said, apologetically. "But, okay!"

"Twenty three dollars?" Lil asked incredulously. "Sam, we don't gots twenty three dollars!"

I nodded. "Maybe we don't have twenty three dollars _separately_." I said, happily. "But, as a group, _maybe_ we could add all of our dollars and change together and use _that_ money to pay for the pictures."

"Hey, yeah!" Tommy cried. "That's a great idea, Sam! All of us babies can looks for moneys at our houses. And whatever we finds, we'll bring heres tonight afore the dance and counts the moneys up!"

I nodded again. "Your idea was good too, Tommy."

Tommy beamed at what I had said.

The babies smiled. I assumed that they all liked Tommy's and my idea. This was great! I love it when people listen to my ideas. No wonder Danny and Tommy were the leaders of our group!

_**A**_bout half an hour later, Danny walked into the living room.

"Okay, then." he said, rubbing his hands together. "What did I miss?"

_**L**_ater that evening, Angelica, Chuckie, Danny, Jazz, Phil, Lil, Tommy, Tucker, and I were sitting in Tommy's bedroom with our piggybanks in our hands. Our parents were downstairs waiting for us to come down and go to the dance, but we didn't want them to see what we were up to.

Tommy's room was pretty cool. His little bed was cute. It was one of those four post beds. But, instead of posts, there was a giant, smiling bear with Tommy's name on it in big letters, with its arm extended toward the sides of the bed. The bear's feet were on the very edge of the bed.

The walls were painted a light pink, with a ton of Reptar stuff hung up everywhere. I don't get how Tommy's able to sleep with all of those dinosaurs staring at him. Danny and I were huge fans of Reptar when we were little. I had all sorts of Reptar collectibles in my room. Action figures, electronics, movies, posters, books, mobiles, you name it. But by the time I turned three, all those Reptars staring at me started to give me the creeps. So, I stuffed all that stuff into one big box and put it in my closet. I haven't opened it since.

As I sat on Tommy's dark blue carpet, I smoothed a wrinkled spot on my dress. I know what you guys are probably thinking right now, and I don't want to hear it. Any of the guys who are listening to this should be pretty lucky that they don't have to suffer the torture of wearing a dress. For special occasions, boys can just wear basically all of the normal stuff they wear almost everyday. Just a button up shirt, some dress pants, dress shoes, and possibly a tie.

I had asked my Mom why I needed to wear a light purple dress with white lace around the sleeves for two hours, when I could've just put on a white button up shirt and black dress pants, all she said was, "Because little girls wears dresses, Sammykins."

I sighed. "Mom, I'm not a little girl anymore! I'm practically six years old already!" I knew it wasn't right to talk back to your parents, but this was a very serious matter to me.

"Yes, dear. I know you are." Mom had said in that stern voice, which really meant, "Listen to me or you're not going to the dance." So I kept my mouth shut.

"Besides," my Dad added, "you'll look very cute in that dress. It looks just like one of your Grandma's old ones."

'Great.' I thought. 'Now I have to wear this stupid dress to the dance, _and_ the 1920's are happening all over again!'

I put a smile on my face like I had changed my mind. I didn't want to be rude to my Mom and Dad. Or to my Grandma for that matter. I love them all so much, I didn't want them to think I was being a brat. Plus, I didn't want to hurt their feelings.

'Besides,' I thought, 'it'll only be for a couple of hours.'

So, now I'm in Tommy's room, sitting on my knees, with a purple dress pinching my legs. 'Well, it could've been worse.' I thought. 'I could've been sucked into a black hole with a bunch of spiders and snakes.'

I quickly glanced at Danny. He didn't look all that happy either. After all, it _was_ Valentines Day. Plus he had to wear that ridiculous suit to the dance. I couldn't blame Danny, even if I was still mad at him.

Suddenly, Tommy stood up. "Okay, babies and genermen!" he cried. He looked cute with his little light blue button up shirt and dark blue bow tie. "We all knows why we're heres in my bedroom. But just in case we don't, we're trying to put our moneys togethers to see if we can get our Mommy's and Daddy's some pictures of us for Valemtimes Day, which is today, and-,"

"Oh, will you just get on with it you dumb baby!" Angelica yelled. "We're wasting valuable time heres!" She smoothed out her light pink dress.

"Um, sorry, Angelica!" Tommy exclaimed. "Now who wants to goes firstest?"

Danny's older sister Jazz raised her hand.

"Okay, Jazz! Let's see what you gots!"

Danny translated what Tommy had said to Jazz. She's seven years old, so she can't speak to babies very well anymore. So, to avoid saying anything embarrassing, Danny became Jazz's translator.

"Well, Tommy," Jazz started, "I counted my money _before_ I got here, so I know for a fact that I have three dollars and fifty cents."

Tommy nodded. "That's great! Danny, how much money do you haves?"

Danny dumped his bills and coins out of his piggy bank, and onto the floor. After counting twice he said, "Err, five dollars."

"Tucker?" Tommy asked.

"Also five dollars." he answered.

"Sam?" Everyone's head turned toward me.

"Four dollars and fifty cents." I said after counting my money.

"Angelica?"

She sighed loudly. "Two dollars. That was all I could finds."

"Phil and Lil?"

"Two quarters."

"Chuckie?"

"I finded two quarters and a dime."

Tommy nodded again with a look of satisfaction on his face. "Great job you guys! All I could find was two nickels. I'm sure we gots enough moneys for the pictures!" He turned to me. "Hey, Sam! Wanna counts all of this?"

"Sure!" I exclaimed.

I started counting the money. I just hoped that we had enough for the pictures. I couldn't bear seeing the babies disappointed. And get this. We got up to twenty-three dollars and twenty cents! It was a miracle! We were going to get our parents the best Valentines Day present ever!

_**A**_s soon as the nine of us got to the Valentines Day dance, the babies right away wanted to get their pictures taken. The only problem was that the photographer wasn't there yet. Which was kind of disappointing because we all wanted to get this done and over with. Well, at least I did anyway. I didn't want to be standing around most of the dance with a bunch of dollars and coins in my dress pocket.

To cheer the babies up, I quickly said, "Besides, you'll get to meet some of our classmates while we wait."

That brightened their spirits up a little bit.

Danny leaned in toward me with an annoyed expression on his face. "I don't really know why I'm talking to you right now," he started, "but do you _really_ want the babies to meet our classmates?"

At that moment I felt so angry, I couldn't help it. I elbowed Danny hard in the stomach.

"Ohhh owww!" Danny groaned, clutching his stomach. "What was that for?" he asked, glaring up at me.

I glared back at him. "Can't you just try and make the babies happy?" I asked.

"What? Do you think I'm not helping them?"

"Oh, I don't know," I said sarcastically, " 'Do you _really_ want the babies to meet our classmates?' What the heck was that?"

"Well, it's better than them being called names and bullied by them!" Danny cried.

Tucker sighed with a mixture of fear and annoyance. "Will you guys just be quiet and listen what Tommy has to say?"

Danny and I stopped arguing for a moment, turned around, and gasped. Dash and Quan were standing right in front of us, brows furrowed and sly smiles on their faces. I gulped. I just knew this wasn't going to turn out very well.

"Well, well, well!" Dash cried, glancing around. "If it isn't Danny Fenton and his little baby playmates! Why don't you guys go home and build a block tower or something? Babies aren't supposed to go to dances!"

Danny sighed. "What do you want, Dash?" he asked.

Dash smiled slyly once again. "Why me?" he asked. "Nothing, at all! I've just been wandering around the school, picking on kids, pushing them out of the way, wandering into random classrooms, picking on random kids lockers, and pulling out _these_." Dash held up some pink, red, and white envelopes.

Danny suddenly gasped. "Hey!" he cried. "You didn't walk into some random classrooms and stole some random Valentines Day cards! You walked into _our_ classroom and stole Valentines Day cards from _my_ locker!"

Dash glanced at the cards in his hands, then back at Danny, and smirked. "Really?" he asked, pretending to be surprised about this. "These are your Valentines Day cards, Fenton? I'm sorry! I _really_ didn't know!"

Danny just glared at the floor.

But that just made Dash smile even more. "What's the matter, Fenton?" he asked. "Don't you want your precious lovey dovey Valentines Day cards back?"

Danny didn't answer. He still kept his eyes glued to the gym floor.

I glanced back at Dash. He looked like he was starting to get irritated. I gulped. I just knew this was going to end badly.

"Answer me, Fenton!" Dash cried.

Danny still didn't move a muscle.

"Fine!" Dash cried, suddenly frowning. "I give up! You win!"

This time Danny looked up. He had a very surprised look on his face. I couldn't blame him. I was shocked too.

"Unless," Dash added, his mean smirk appearing on his face once again, "_this_ applies to you in any way."

He gestured to Quan who, was surprisingly quiet those past few minutes and held up a little, black, vinyl sketchbook. It was the book that Danny kept all of our ghost group plans in! We couldn't let Dash see what was inside it, or else our secret would be in jeopardy!

Just as I expected, Danny ran toward Dash and cried, "Dash! Quan! Give that back! It doesn't belong to you!"

Quan kept lifting the little book upward as Danny jumped. No matter how hard he tried, Danny just couldn't seem to grab the book out of Quan's fist. He could barely reach it.

Dash and Quan were laughing the whole time Danny was jumping. I couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for Danny. After all, I used to be his best friend. I was hoping for some sort of miracle to make Quan drop the book, but I just knew that wasn't going to happen. Soon, I couldn't stand to see Danny humiliate himself anymore. I covered my eyes. I didn't want to watch this!

SMACK!

I quickly opened my eyes and looked around. I thought Danny had just gotten a punch in the face, but surprisingly, Quan was on the ground wincing and rubbing the back of his head. I glanced at the babies. Their mouths were hanging open and they had shocked looks on their faces.

"What the?" Dash cried, glaring at us. "Who-Whoever did that is gonna pay!"

SMACK!

A huge rock came flying out of nowhere and hit Dash in the back of his head.

Dash cried out in pain, tears streaming down his face, and fell to the ground, rubbing the back of his head just like Quan.

We all glanced up to see Bart Simpson with his slingshot in his hand. He was jumping up and down excitedly.

"Yeah!" he cried happily. "Bull's-eye!" He started pointing at Dash and Quan with both of his index fingers. We all couldn't help but smile.

"In your face, losers!" Bart cried. "Yeah! You can play the game, but you can't take the pain, 'cause the Bartman's here! 'Cause the Bartman's here! Everybody starts to cheer and takes me outta here 'cause the Bartman's here! 'Cause the Bartman's here! Oh, yeah! Uh, huh!"

Bart kept doing his chants, while the rest of us cheered him on.

After a few more minutes of us cheering, I felt a small tug on my right dress sleeve. I glanced down to see Tommy staring up at me with a worried look on his face. "Um, Sam…"

Chapter 5: Danny's Explanation

_**I**_ quickly looked to where Tommy was pointing, and gasped. Dash and Quan were back up on their feet, and they didn't look very happy. As soon as those bullies turned away from us, it came to me. Dash and Quan weren't going to come after us this time. They were going to take their anger out on Bart! I had to do something.

I was about to get Danny's attention, when I thought, 'Wait a minute! We aren't speaking to each other anymore! I can't speak to him _now_!' So, instead, I tapped on Tucker's shoulder. He immediately stopped cheering.

"Isn't this awesome, Sam?" Tucker asked, happily. "Dash and Quan are finally getting what they deserve!"

"Not exactly." I replied. "Bart's about to get pummeled!"

"Wha-," Tucker gasped, after he saw what I was talking about.

It was like every step Dash and Quan took was a step closer to Bart's doom. And Bart was _still_ dancing and chanting. What the heck was going on with that baby? Couldn't he see that Dash and Quan were walking angrily toward him? Did he seriously have _that_ short of an attention span?

"What are we going to do?" Tucker panicked.

There was only one thing to do at that moment. But unfortunately, Danny beat me to it. "BART! RUN!"

"Not now!" Bart called back. "I'm still chanting!"

His eyes had been closed the entire time. "OPEN YOUR EYES BART!" I cried. But, Bart was still ignoring us.

Danny and I tried yelling more times individually, but Bart still kept dancing and chanting.

Finally, Danny and I glanced at each other, then back at Bart, and yelled, "BART! DASH AND QUAN ARE RIGHT BEHIND YOU! RUN!"

"Huh?" That got Bart's attention. He slowly turned around, and looked up to see Dash and Quan staring down at him.

Bart gulped. "H-Hey guys!" he greeted, nervously. "W-What's up?"

Dash picked Bart up by his shirt collar, and glared at him.

As Dash and Quan were starting to head for the gym door, Bart was trying to reason with them. "C-Come on you guys! Can't we make an agreement on this?"

Dash and Quan just smirked at him.

"C'mon!" Bart cried. "Can't I get a good lawyer? A-A witness? A second request? Aye ka rumba, man! Let me go!" Bart turned his big yellow head at us. "HELP ME, YOU GUYS!"

Dash and Quan left the gym with Bart dangling for his life. We all stood there in shock.

"Man," Angelica smirked, "that Dash kid is pretty strong!"

We all glared at her.

"What?" Angelica asked. "I was just saying."

"Never mind about that!" I cried. "What are we gonna to do about Dash and Quan? Bart's in danger!"

"What do you mean what are we gonna do?" Phil asked, angrily. "We're not gonna do nothing!"

"Yeah, Sam!" Lil cried. "Member all of the stuffs Bart did to us?"

Suddenly, Tommy stepped in. "I thinks Sam's right you guys!"

"Huh?" we all cried.

"Since when have _I_ ever been right?" I asked suspiciously.

"Well," Tommy started, "you've been right about a lot of stuffs, Sam. It's just that, well, Bart saved all of us, so, I say we should help him, too!" He turned toward the other babies. "Right, you guys?"

The babies mumbled stuff like, "I guess so." and "Maybe." and "Uh, huh. Sure." while staring at their feet.

Tommy smiled. "That settles it then!" he cried. "We're gonna save Bart! Now, I'm gonna split us into two groups. Danny, Phil, Lil, and Tucker, you guys are gonna be the firstest group. The rest of you are with me!"

I smiled, and walked toward Tommy. This was a great plan! At least I didn't have to be with Danny. But then I realized Phil and Lil weren't gonna be with me either. Plus, Angelica was in my group.

I sighed. This actually might not go as well as I had planned.

Tommy smiled at me, and pulled out two small flashlights. He gave one of them to Danny, who really didn't look too pleased to be taking a flashlight that Tommy had been carrying around in his diaper. Tommy kept the other flashlight.

"Okay, babies!" he cried. "Here's the plan! Danny, you take the right side of the school, and I'll take the left! Check all of the classrooms, and all of the bathrooms, and lets us know if you finds anything! Now," Tommy continued, "let's go saves Bart!"

Danny and Tommy quickly turned on their flashlights, and we headed out to the hallway. We went around the school as directed. After about five minutes of searching, Tommy pointed his flashlight at me.

"Hey, Sam!" he cried.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"I was thinking," Tommy explained, "you know this school way betterer than me, and I was wondering if you wanted to lead us for awhile."

I smiled. "Sure, Tommy!" I walked up to him and took the flashlight.

Angelica laughed. "You mean, _Manson's_ gonna lead us?" she asked, turning to Tommy. "Nice going, peas for brains!"

Chuckie glared at her. "C'mon, Angelica!" he cried. "She knows this school way betterer than me, and I've only been coming here for about a year! Sides," Chuckie added, "I don't think Sam will be a bad leader!"

Angelica glared at Chuckie and showed him her right fist.

"I said, I _don't_ _think_ Sam will be a bad leader!" Chuckie cried, fearfully. "Please don't turns me into apple sauce, Angelica! I didn't mean to make you mad!"

I sighed. "Angelica, quit bugging Chuckie and me and let's try and find Bart, okay."

"Fine." Angelica mumbled. "But this is the only time I'm gonna listen to you, Manson."

"I wouldn't want it any other way!" I replied.

We searched our side of the hall for another ten minutes, but we still couldn't seem to find Bart, Dash, or Quan.

"Let's face it you guys!" I cried. "They aren't on our side of the hall!"

"No!" Tommy exclaimed. "We can't gives up yet, Sam! If we were pirates searching for our buried treasure, would we gives up? If we were the space peoples blasting aliems, would we gives up? If Reptar were heres, would he-,"

"Okay!" I gave in. "Okay! We'll keep searching!"

Another ten minutes passed before we heard a voice calling, "You guys! Get over here now!"

"That was Danny!" Chuckie cried.

"He must've founded something!" Tommy said, excitedly. "Let's goes!"

About two minutes later, we found Danny, Phil, Lil, and Tucker near a classroom door. As we got closer I realized it was _my_ classroom.

Danny ran up to Tommy. "Phil and Tucker heard screaming coming from the other side of our classroom." he explained. "We think it might be Bart!"

I strained my ears and listened. I heard a few nasally screams coming from the other side of the classroom. That had to be Bart. I remembered that scream when Bart almost hit me with his skateboard.

"What are we gonna do, Tommy?" Lil asked, fearfully.

Tommy's eyes darted around the hall. "I-I don't know!" he cried.

"For Pete's sake!" Angelica cried. "I thinks two of us should goes in there, so the other person will have backup in case someone gets hurt! Now," she continued, "who's gonna goes in there? 'Cause I'll tell you one thing! It isn't gonna be me!"

We all glanced at each other. No one seemed to want to volunteer to go inside the classroom.

A few seconds later, Tucker came up with a solution. "I've gotta idea!" he cried. "How about we let the leaders go inside? You know, the people who have the flashlights can shine the lights in Dash and Quan's eyes and they won't be able to see Bart! Then, Bart can run out of the classroom and go to the dance!"

"Hey! That's not a bad idea there, Tucker!" Tommy exclaimed. "So Sam, it looks like you and Danny are gonna goes in theres and stops this mess!"

Danny and I gasped. "WHAT?" we cried.

"Why should I go in there with him?" I asked, pointing to Danny.

"Yeah!" Danny said, nodding. "Why am I going in that classroom to stop two bullies with my ex-best friend?"

"'Cause," Phil started, "you guys are the leaders, and you gots the flashlights!"

"Sides," Lil added, "you two are the olderest kids here! And Bart is probably gonna get tired of running around in theres afore you guys gets in theres!"

I glanced at Danny. "She has a point." he said.

I sighed. "Fine! But we're only going there for a few seconds."

Since Danny was the closest to the door, he slowly turned the doorknob. I found it surprising that it was unlocked just half an hour before the dance started, but I just shrugged it off. Bart was in trouble, and it was up to us to stop this fight before it happened.

When Danny stepped inside, he gasped.

"What is it?" I cried, running inside. I gasped when I got into the classroom. Bart, Dash, and Quan weren't _anywhere_ in the room.

"Wait a minute!" Danny exclaimed, with a puzzled and annoyed look on his face. "If nobody's in here, then where did the screaming come-,"

SLAM!

Danny and I jumped, and quickly turned around. The door had just shut behind us.

Danny ran to the door and tried turning the doorknob. But it wouldn't budge. "It's locked!" he cried.

"W-What's going on?" I asked, nervously. I was scared now.

"Hang on!" Danny cried. "I'll try calling the babies!" He cupped his hand together and yelled, "TOMMY! TUCKER! ANGELICA! ANYONE? WE'RE TRAPPED INSIDE THE CLASSROOM! LET US OUT!"

A minute later, we heard the movement of feet coming toward the door and then Tommy's voice. "Danny! Sam! You guys still in theres?"

"Yes." Danny answered. "I told you, the door's locked! Could you unlock it please?"

"Sorry, you guys." Tommy replied. "I can't unlocks it."

"Why not?"

"You guys needs to talk. Everybody's tired of you two arguing!"

"We told you, Tommy! We're not friends anymore! Will you just-," Danny paused. Then he slapped himself on the forehead. "Oh, man! I should've known!"

"Not that I care or anything, Danny," I started, "but, what's wrong?"

"Don't you get it, Sam?" he cried. "Bart was never in any real danger! This was all just a big set up to get you and me to be friends again!"

"WHAT?" Oh, boy, I was mad. "Tommy Pickles! Unlock this door right now!"

"Sorry, you guys!" Tommy exclaimed. "But this is for your own good!"

"Yeah!" Phil's voice came through the door. "You guys are acting like me and Lil!"

"Or cats and dogs." Chuckie added.

"Or day and night." I heard Tucker say.

"Or orange juice and toothpaste." Angelica added.

"Or-Or-, Hey! You guys took all of the good opposites! Will you or Sam help me out here?"

Danny was starting get really frustrated. "NO!" he yelled. "WHAT WE _NEED_ YOU TO DO IS TO IS TO UNLOCK THE DOOR AND GET US OUT OF HERE!" He started yanking on the doorknob some more.

"Wait a minute!" I cried. "Bart Simpson? How did you get out there?"

"Me, Dash, and Quan sneaked outta the other classroom door just as you was entering!" Bart replied proudly.

When Danny heard what Bart had just said, he stopped trying to open the door, and ran to the other side of the classroom. Soon enough, Danny was yanking as hard as he could on that doorknob.

"Oh, by the way," we heard Quan say, "don't even bother trying to open the other door. We locked that one too."

Danny let go of the doorknob and asked, "Why are you even trying to save our friendship, Quan? You hate us!"

Dash answered that question for him. "Because, what good is it to have an arch enemy when he's too busy arguing with his friend? You won't cower in fear anymore!"

"Gee, thanks!" Danny cried, rolling his eyes. "That's a great reason to lock me in a classroom half an hour before the dance! My parents will be worried sick!"

"You're welcome, Fenton!" Dash replied. "Hey, shouldn't we be heading back to the gym? Our parents are gonna be there any minute!"

"Wait!" I cried. "You mean, you guys are just gonna _leave_ us here?"

"Don't worry, Sam!" Tommy exclaimed. "We'll come back here afore the dance! We promless!"

"Yeah," Angelica added, "maybe!"

Danny and I started yelling at the babies to come back and let us out of the classroom, but they didn't answer. We kept doing this for a few more minutes, until we finally gave up. I sighed. We were gonna be here by ourselves for awhile.

_**D**_anny and I sat in silence, fiddling with our thumbs. I felt like we'd been sitting in there for hours. What was taking the babies so long?

'Well, on the bright side,' I thought, 'at least the lights are on!' I've never told anyone this, but I've been afraid of the dark since I was three years old. I was at a nighttime carnival with my parents, and there was a petting zoo there. I was so excited to see the animals, so I asked Mom and Dad if we could go see them. They both agreed.

I guess I was so busy looking at the animals, that I didn't hear my parents say it was time to go. When I turned around, they weren't there.

It was so dark there. Besides the Ferris wheel lights, I couldn't see anything! So, I started to cry. Hey, what else was I supposed to do? I was only three! Luckily for me, a security man came up to me, and soon enough we found my Mom and Dad. I think that was the scariest moment of my life! I've never gone to a carnival since then. And I've never been anyplace that's dark since that day either.

After a few more minutes of silence, Danny suddenly stood up. "That's it!" he cried. "I'm busting the door open!"

I glanced up at him with a worried look on my face. "Danny, I don't think that's such a good idea!"

"Why?" Danny asked, raising an eyebrow. "Got any better ideas?"

I thought for a moment. "No, but-,"

"Then it's settled then!" Danny interrupted. "Now, on the count of three, I'm gonna slam the door down! One…"

He took a few steps back.

"Danny, I don't think you should do this!" I cried.

"Two…"

Danny got into a running position.

"You could get hurt!"

"Three!"

Danny ran as fast as he could toward the door and slammed himself into it as hard as he could. WHAM!

"OWWW!" Danny yelled, jumping up and down and clutching his left arm. "OW! OW! OW! OW! OWWW!"

I gasped. "What did I _tell_ you?"

"It hurts!" Danny said, gritting his teeth. "I think I bruised it!"

"Hang on!" I cried. "I think there might be some bandages in the first aid kit!"

Danny glanced up at me with a surprised look on his face. "We have a first aid kit in here?"

"Of course we do! Where did you think Mrs. Robinson gets all her bandages? From a magical genie in her pocket?"

"Sort of." Danny answered.

I sighed, and grabbed the first aid kit from the top shelf of the cupboard under the sink. I quickly fished through the first aid kit until I found a box of Reptar bandages. Once I got the box open, I pulled a bandage out and gave it to Danny.

"All better, now?" I asked him, with a smirk on my face.

Danny nodded with an annoyed look on his face. "Yeah, thanks."

He sat down in a nearby chair and placed the Reptar bandage on his left elbow. Danny gave a huge sigh. "Well," he mumbled, "I guess we're stuck here for awhile."

I nodded. "I guess so."

Silence. Then, "I messed up, didn't I?"

I glanced over to see Danny looking up at me. "What do you mean?"

Danny sighed. "I guess, what I'm trying to say is, I should've let Bart join our ghost group. We've been trying to get new members for months to join our team. Then an opportunity like this comes right in front of my face, and BAM! I blow it." He paused for a moment. "I guess I just wasn't thinking at the time."

Wow. I had never heard Danny say anything like this before. I felt kind of bad.

"No," I replied, "_I_ messed up. I guess I was in such a rush for finding new members, that I wasn't thinking about you or the babies opinions for Bart joining our group." A pause. "I guess I just got a little carried away."

I noticed Danny grin a little bit. "I don't think the survey thing was the best option!"

I couldn't help but laugh at this. "No, I guess it wasn't!"

Danny laughed too. "Listen, I'm sorry if I was such a jerk the past few days. I was so busy trying to find new members, that I guess I didn't have time for the stuff I enjoy. Like, Valentines Days for example. Or hanging out with my friends. I shouldn't have let that happen."

So that explained the whole Valentines Day thing! I smiled. "And I'm sorry if I got a little pushy and told everyone your Reptar Bar reaction. I was acting like-like-," I couldn't think of what to say next.

"Angelica?" Danny suggested.

I giggled. "Yeah. Like Angelica!" I paused. "So, does this mean that we're friends again?"

"The best!" Danny exclaimed.

We gave each other a quick hug.

Once we pulled away from each other, an idea hit me. "Oh, man!" I cried, slapping myself on the forehead. "I can't believe I didn't think of this before!"

"What is it?" Danny asked, with a puzzled look on his face.

I pulled one of my hairpins out, and held it up to Danny's face. "You know how to pick locks, right?" I said smiling.

Danny grinned.

Chapter 6: Picture This!

_**Y**_ou should've seen the look on the babies' faces when they spotted Danny and me entering the gym doors. Let's just say they looked scared to see us (Except for Dash and Quan of course.) because we had false angry looks on our faces. It's kind of hard to make a mad face when you're trying so hard not to burst out laughing. But I managed to do it.

When we approached the babies Danny cried, "Tommy! Tucker!"

"Phil! Lil!" I called out angrily.

"It wasn't our faults!" Phil cried, quickly running up to me.

"We was only following orders!" Lil said, approaching her twin brother as slowly as she could.

"Tommy," Danny asked, madly, "was this your idea?"

"Um, well, I…" Tommy stuttered. "Bart camed to my house when you, Sam, and Tucker was at school. He camed up with the idea, and I camed up with the plan!"

I glared at Bart. He had a mixture of surprise and fear in his eyes. He gulped, glanced up at me, and mumbled, "Don't have a cow, man! We was only trying to helps you!"

I tried to keep my mad face on, but what Bart said was so funny, I couldn't help myself! I burst out laughing. Unfortunately, that made Danny start laughing too.

The babies looked at us with puzzled and relieved looks on their faces.

"So, you're not mad at us?" Tucker asked, quickly.

Once Danny and I got control of ourselves, I cried, "Of course, not! You guys were only trying to help! We were just pretending to be mad at you guys to get even!"

Danny nodded. "We appreciate what you did, you guys." He paused before continuing. "Just, don't ever do that again!"

"Don't worry!" Tommy exclaimed. "We won't!"

"Yeah," Angelica said, arms crossed and rolling her eyes, "hopefully!"

I smirked. "Why?" I asked. "Were you afraid that Danny and I were gonna yell at you?"

Angelica glared at me. "No!" she cried. "I'm not ascared of you dummies!"

Little did Angelica know was that Tucker was sneaking up behind her while she was saying this. "BOO!" Tucker yelled.

Angelica screamed.

All of us burst out laughing.

"Oh," Angelica said, in mock seriousness, "well, that time I was just messing with you! That's all!"

"Whatever, Angelica!" I said, rolling my eyes.

"Wait a minute!" Tommy suddenly cried, turning to me and Danny. "Does this mean our plan worked, and you guys are friends again?"

Danny and I glanced at each other, then back at the babies, and nodded. "Yep!"

Tommy grinned. "That's great!" He turned to the others. "Did you hear that babies? We did it! Danny and Sam are friends again!"

The babies cheered.

"Hey, Sam!" Chuckie exclaimed. "Do you gots our picture moneys?"

I was puzzled for a moment, until I realized what Chuckie was talking about. "Oh, yeah!" I took the piggybank out of my right dress pocket and glanced to my left. The photographers were all set up for pictures! It was a good thing too. I was getting tired of carrying all of that heavy money in my dress pocket. "Well," I said, "we might as well get our pictures taken before everybody else gets here."

"Good idea!" Phil cried. "Let's goes!"

As the babies ran to the photographers, Dash and Quan approached us.

"Hey, Dash!" Danny exclaimed. "Hey Quan! Thanks for helping me and Sam back there. That was really nice of-," Danny was cut off when Dash picked him up by his shirt collar.

"Listen closely, Fenton!" Dash cried. "What happened back there, stays back there. Everything is gonna go back to normal starting tomorrow. You don't tell anyone about this, and I won't either. Got it?" He held up his fist.

Danny nodded, quickly. "Sure, Dash. I don't have anything against that!"

Dash smiled. "Good! It was a pleasure doing business with you Fenton!" Dash shook Danny's right hand as fast and as hard as he could. Then he and Quan ran to the other side of the gym to pour mouthwash into the punch.

Danny groaned. "Great!" he cried. "One arm's bruised, the other one has been nearly pulled out of its socket, and now I need to get my right hand sprayed for Dashaburkulosis!"

I laughed.

"Hey, Danny!" Tucker cried. "Sam! Get over here! You guys have to pay for the pictures!"

"We're coming!" I called. I turned to Danny. "Come on! Let's get over there before they take the picture!"

When we got over to the photographers, Jazz came running up to us.

"Where have you been all this time?" Danny asked.

"Helping Mom and Dad at the daycare center!" Jazz answered. "What did I miss?"

"Well," I started, "Danny and I got trapped in our classroom, we became friends again, and Dash and Danny became friends for a record of two seconds. I think that's about it."

Jazz looked at me with a surprised look on her face. "Wow!" she exclaimed. "And I thought I was only gone for half an hour!"

As I gave the photographers the money, Danny asked, "It's only been half an hour?" He faced the babies. "How long were Sam and I in our classroom?"

"I don't know." Tucker replied. "Probably about ten minutes."

"Really?" I asked. "It seemed much longer than that! It seems time goes by really slow at school."

Danny opened his mouth to say something, but one of the photographers interrupted him. "So, you want seven copies of this picture, and nine people in the picture?"

I nodded.

"Well," the photographer said, "we have a policy that when someone buy more than five copies, you get one more copy for free!"

"Sweet!" I cried. I paused for a moment. "But do we need another copy?"

I glanced at Danny who was lost in thought. A minute passed before he exclaimed, "I think we do!"

He walked to his left to where Bart was. He had been watching us gloomily, while the babies were getting ready for their picture.

I watched Danny and Bart chat for a few minutes. Then they both came to the photography section. "Here's our tenth person!" Danny exclaimed.

I smiled. Bart did seem to look happier.

A few more minutes passed before we were all ready for our picture.

"Okay, kids!" the second photographer cried. "Everybody ready?"

I checked to see if everyone was comfortable. Everything seemed to be all right. I turned back around and nodded.

"Okay, then!" the photographer cried. "On the count of three, smile and say cheese! One…Two…Three!"

"CHEESE!" we all exclaimed.

Afterword

"_**N**_ow," Sam continued, looking into the camera, "everything is back to normal." She paused. "Well, _almost_ normal.

"Danny and I are still friends, now that that whole ridiculous argument is over. Tommy is still making plans and adventures. Chuckie is still learning how to be brave. Tucker is still making jokes and hanging out with the babies. And Phil and Lil are still acting like, well, Phil and Lil. Anyway, all of us are still the same.

"First of all, as you may want to know, all of our parents' loved the Valentines Day Pictures. My Mom went to a photography store to make our group picture a bigger size. I didn't really care whether she put it our living room wall or anything. I want to treasure this picture for the rest of my life.

"Dash and Quan still continue to taunt Danny, Tucker, and me. None of us have discussed what happened on Valentines Day. And we never told anyone about what happened that day either. And we're just fine with that, because that's the way everything should be.

"As you probably figured out already, Danny and Bart have forgotten about their past differences. Bart is the same person he was, and always will be. He will every once in awhile get angry with us, but quickly catches himself (Well, most of the time anyway.). Bart's much nicer to us now.

"Bart still likes to pull pranks on people, but most of them are harmless ones now. He had to leave town to go back to Springfield because the baby was going to be born soon. Bart came back to Tommy's house with his Mom two weeks later so we could see his new baby sister, Lisa Simpson. She's very cute! It turns out that when Bart said he had plans for his new sister, he meant that he was going to teach her some new things. I guess all Bart needed was a friend. And he got a handful of them!

"Bart ended up joining our ghost group. He's not very good at keeping secrets is the problem. So, Danny, Tucker, and I told Bart he could join if he didn't tell anyone about it. Bart promised that he wouldn't tell, and whenever he came over, he would teach us some of his skateboarding and slingshot skills. He's actually pretty good at it (And he actually knows how to make slingshots!)!

"Now," Sam concluded, "I think that's the end of my story. Thanks for listening!" She stood up and turned off the camera.

"That was pretty easy!" Sam admitted. "Now, I need a juice break! All of this story telling is making me thirsty!"

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


End file.
